- 16 - The record establishes that Mrs. Dornbrock habitually turned over the responsibility of dealing with the couple's business and financial matters, including their Federal income tax matters, to her husband. Mrs. Dornbrock trusted her husband completely and signed their joint Federal income tax returns without even reviewing them. Furthermore, Mrs. Dornbrock never opened any mail that appeared to be financially or tax related, even though it may have been addressed jointly to her and her husband. Mrs. Dornbrock was aware of correspondence received from the IRS; however, she allowed Mr. Dornbrock to deal with such matters without question. This conduct impliedly authorized Mr. Dornbrock to represent Mrs. Dornbrock with respect to their Federal income tax matters. Mr. Dornbrock acted within the scope of this authority when he retained Mr. Young, by and through Mr. Pasternak, to file a petition with this Court. Mr. Young acted pursuant to the authority granted to him by Mr. Dornbrock on Mr. and Mrs. Dornbrock's behalf when he filed the joint petition in this case. "Even if * * * [the taxpayer] was not aware of the dispute with the IRS, her own admitted delegation of authority to her husband cannot now be revoked because she is unhappy with the outcome of her case. 'Deficiencies ex post do not detract from authority ex ante.'" DiSanza v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993- 142, affd. without published opinion 9 F.3d 1538 (2d Cir. 1993).Page: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011