- 10 -
ascertained from surrounding facts and circumstances. Id.; sec.
1.274-5(c)(2)(ii)(B), Income Tax Regs.
In the instant case, petitioner did not produce any records
for travel taken during 1993. Rather, petitioner testified that
all of her records for 1993 were destroyed in the Flint River
flood on July 7, 1994. Section 1.274-5T(c)(5), Temporary Income
Tax Regs., provides a limited exception to the heightened
substantiation requirement under section 274(d):
Where the taxpayer establishes that the failure to
produce adequate records is due to the loss of such
records through circumstances beyond the taxpayer's
control, such as destruction by fire, flood,
earthquake, or other casualty, the taxpayer shall have
a right to substantiate a deduction by reasonable
reconstruction of his expenditures or use.
Taxpayers whose records are lost due to casualty must
reasonably reconstruct them to gain the benefits of the
deduction. Gizzi v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 342, 345-346 (1975).
In the instant case, although petitioner has shown that her
records were lost in the Flint River flood, she made no attempt
to reconstruct those records for 1993. Consequently, the record
contains no basis on which the Court can allow a deduction for
1993 beyond the amounts respondent has allowed.
As to 1994, petitioner has submitted 11 months of expense
sheets detailing dates, destinations, mileage driven, and, in
most cases, the purpose of the trip by petitioner during such
period. We conclude that the expense sheets, together with
petitioner's testimony at trial, sufficiently substantiate
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011