- 50 -
any part of the underpayment is due to negligence or intentional
disregard of rules or regulations. Section 6653(a)(1)(B) imposes
an additional addition to tax equal to 50 percent of the interest
payable under section 6601 with respect to the portion of the
underpayment attributable to the negligence, etc. Petitioners
have the burden of proving error in respondent’s determination
that these additions to tax should be imposed against them.
Korshin v. Commissioner, 91 F.3d 670, 671 (4th Cir. 1996), affg.
T.C. Memo. 1995-46; Bixby v. Commissioner, 58 T.C. 757, 791-792
(1972).
Broadly speaking, for purposes of this provision, negligence
is lack of due care or failure to do what a reasonable and
ordinarily prudent person would do under the circumstances.
Cluck v. Commissioner, 105 T.C. 324, 339 (1995); Neely v.
Commissioner, 85 T.C. 934, 947-948 (1985). Reasonable and good-
faith reliance by a taxpayer on an accountant or attorney may be
sufficient to avoid the addition to tax for negligence. See
United States v. Boyle, 469 U.S. 241, 251 (1985).
The $16 million-plus deduction that petitioners took on
their 1983 tax return and carried over to each of their tax
returns through at least 1988, was many times as great as any
other items on their tax returns from 1977 on. See supra tables
1 and 2. From 1983 on, these deductions took petitioners off the
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