- 10 -
liability could be calculated. Beard v. Commissioner, supra at
779. However, noncompliance does not amount to concealment on
these facts. Fourth, petitioners maintained continuous
correspondence with respondent in regard to their case. The
facts do not clearly show that petitioners intended to mislead
respondent or conceal their tax liability. Rather, the facts
show that they erroneously believed that they did not owe any
tax. As this Court has previously stated, these types of
arguments "may have been meritless, frivolous, wrongheaded, and
even stupid, but we cannot hold that they amounted to fraud
without something more. Were we to do so, every [tax] protester
case would be automatically converted into a fraud case."
Kotmair v. Commissioner, 86 T.C. 1253, 1262 (1986). We will,
however, address below the consequences of pursuing such
erroneous beliefs before this Court.
The sixth issue for decision is whether petitioners are
liable in the alternative for the section 6662(a) accuracy-
related penalty for 1991. Respondent's determinations are
presumed to be correct, and petitioners bear the burden of
proving that the penalties do not apply. Rule 142(a); Welch v.
Helvering, 290 U.S. 111, 115 (1933); Bixby v. Commissioner, 58
T.C. 757, 791-792 (1972).
Section 6662(a) imposes a 20-percent penalty on the portion
of the underpayment attributable to any one of various factors,
one of which is negligence or disregard of rules or regulations.
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