- 8 - otherwise prevent the collection of taxes. See Parks v. Commissioner, 94 T.C. 654, 660-661 (1990). The Commissioner must meet this burden through affirmative evidence because fraud is never imputed or presumed. Beaver v. Commissioner, 55 T.C. 85, 92 (1970). A. Underpayment of Tax Petitioners admitted in their amended returns that they had underreported, in their original returns, cash payments from Brockland Pontiac for each year in issue. The filing of those amended returns is an admission of an underpayment of tax for each of those years. See Badaracco v. Commissioner, 464 U.S. 386, 399 (1984). B. Fraudulent Intent The Commissioner must prove that a portion of such underpayment for each taxable year was due to fraud. Professional Servs. v. Commissioner, 79 T.C. 888, 930 (1982). The existence of fraud is a question of fact to be resolved from the entire record. Gajewski v. Commissioner, 67 T.C. 181, 199 (1976), affd. without published opinion 578 F.2d 1383 (8th Cir. 1978). Because direct proof of a taxpayer's intent is rarely available, fraud may be proven by circumstantial evidence and reasonable inferences may be drawn from the relevant facts. Spies v. United States, 317 U.S. 492, 499 (1943); Stephenson v.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
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