- 16 - of Appeals noted that the Commissioner's determination of deficiencies is presumptively correct once some substantive evidence is introduced showing that a taxpayer received unreported income. The Court of Appeals also rejected the taxpayers' argument that this Court's dismissal of their case for failure to properly prosecute violated their Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination. The Court noted in Edwards v. Commissioner, supra at 1270: To invoke the fifth amendment privilege, the taxpayer must be faced with substantial hazards of self- incrimination that are real and appreciable, and must have reasonable cause to apprehend such danger. United States v. Neff, 615 F.2d 1235, 1239 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 925, 100 S.Ct. 3018, 65 L.Ed.2d 1117 (1980). Appellants steadfastly assert that they have engaged in no criminal activity relating to their auto repair business, nor is any criminal investigation pending. Their fifth amendment claim merely rests on a generalized fear that if forced to turn over their business records, they somehow would be more likely to have criminal charges brought against them for tax evasion. Because there is no indication that production of their records would reveal criminal activity in their auto repair business and because the fifth amendment privilege may not itself be used as a method of evading payment of lawful taxes, United States v. Carlson, 617 F.2d 518, 523 (9th Cir.) cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1010, 101 S.Ct. 564, 66 L.Ed.2d 468 (1980), we reject appellants' fifth amendment claim as frivolous. In this case, as in Edwards, the use of one or more of several indirect methods to reconstruct a taxpayer's income is permissible. Sec. 446(b). In particular, the use of BLS data has been approved by this Court. See Giddio v. Commissioner,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
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