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petitioners have not shown that such debt became wholly worthless
in 1990 or 1991.4
After considering all of the relevant facts, we find that,
regardless of whether the promissory note signed by petitioner
husband created a bona fide debt, petitioners have not shown that
the debt became totally worthless in 1990 or 1991. The record
contains no evidence of any attempts by petitioner wife to
enforce repayment of the loan. Although petitioners were not
married at the time petitioner husband signed the loan agreement,
their marriage only 2-1/2 months after the debt's repayment date
indicates that petitioner wife decided not to collect an
otherwise collectible debt from her new husband. See Davies v.
Commissioner, 54 T.C. 170, 176 (1970). In the absence of any
credible proof supporting a finding that the loan became
uncollectible in 1990 or 1991, we find that petitioners failed to
carry their burden in that respect.
Petitioner husband testified that the loan was incurred to
finance his marketing of the golf club cleaning machine and his
failure to sell any of these units foreclosed any chance that he
would be able to repay the loan, thus making it worthless. There
4 We note that the original claim for a bad debt
deduction was in 1990, a taxable year not before the Court. This
case concerns only petitioners' claimed bad debt deduction in
1991. Our decision controls the deductibility of the debt in
1991 regardless of whether the debt first became worthless in
1990 or 1991.
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