- 29 - that INI did not owe Burke a bonus. Later, petitioner caused INI to make payments to Burke's estate in lieu of payments to be made by petitioner personally. Petitioner characterized the payments made by INI as a bonus to Burke’s estate, giving rise to a deduction for INI and income to the estate. When Thorpe refused to report the payments as a bonus on the estate’s tax returns, petitioner recharacterized the payments from INI to Burke's estate as constructive bonus payments to petitioner and filed amended personal returns showing income therefrom. Thus, petitioner has tried to adopt three different characterizations of the payments he made, and the payments he caused INI to make, in satisfaction of his obligations under the buy-sell agreement. The only explanation for these recharacterizations is found in petitioner’s attempts to change the tax consequences of the transaction as originally agreed to by Burke and petitioner, and confirmed by Thorpe and petitioner following Burke’s death. Thorpe testified that petitioner then proposed a modification to the deal "to avoid paying some taxes". Third, following the delays occasioned by Cutshall’s refusal to allow Becker to interview petitioner and her failures to produce requested documents, petitioner, once he began to deal directly with Becker, submitted documents that he had falsified. Although a jury found petitioner not guilty of three misdemeanor counts of submission of false statements to respondent, it isPage: Previous 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011