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standing pretrial order and Branerton Corp. v. Commissioner, 61
T.C. 691 (1974). Petitioners were generally uncooperative in
providing respondent with documents and in stipulating facts as
required by Rule 91. Petitioners consistently refused to address
the issue of income received for the years in issue.
Nevertheless, petitioners continue to assert that they do not owe
any tax. Petitioners have the burden of proof. Rule 142(a).
Given this scenario, we normally would have imposed damages
against each petitioner pursuant to section 6673 for each of the
years in issue. In this case, however, respondent conceded for
the first time at trial that Carolyn Webb was not liable for the
deficiencies determined against her for tax years 1987, 1988, and
1989. Moreover, in the trial memorandum, Carolyn Webb raised a
substantive issue pertaining to her residence for the years in
issue, and whether California community property law is
applicable to her for those years. For these reasons, we decline
to impose damages against her.
With respect to petitioner, he had no grounds to support the
purported factual issue, raised for the first time in the trial
memorandum, concerning the application of community property law
with respect to him. In fact, by asserting that he is not
subject to California community property law for the years in
issue petitioner actually argued against his own interest.
Petitioner's other arguments were completely frivolous. We
further find that petitioner instituted and maintained these
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