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Section 162(a) allows a deduction for the ordinary and
necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in
carrying on a trade or business. In the event that a taxpayer
establishes that she has paid a deductible expense, but is unable
to substantiate the precise amount of the expense, we may
estimate the amount of the deductible expense. Cohan v.
Commissioner, 39 F.2d 540, 543-544 (2d Cir. 1930). In order to
make such an estimate, the taxpayer must present evidence
sufficient to provide some rational basis upon which an estimate
may be made. Vanicek v. Commissioner, 85 T.C. 731, 743 (1985).
Petitioner presented no receipts in support of her claimed
deductions. She maintains, however, that she fully substantiated
her claimed deductions during respondent's audit of her 1992 and
1993 returns. Her explanation for failing to produce the records
at trial is that such records were too voluminous to fit in her
car.
We reject petitioner's excuse for being unprepared for
trial. As a law school graduate, tax accountant, and previous
litigant in this Court,3 petitioner should have known that the
documents she allegedly showed to respondent at the
administrative level would need to be produced as evidence at
trial. More importantly, petitioner was served with a notice on
3 See Browne v. Commissioner, 73 T.C. 723 (1980);
Dandeneau v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1971-128, affd. without
published opinion sub nom. Browne v. Commissioner, 456 F.2d 799
(5th Cir. 1972).
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