- 44 - misclassification of its properties. Even though petitioner's accountants were listed as witnesses in the pretrial memorandum, it never called the accountants to explain, verify, or discuss why properties were recorded in a certain manner. See Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. at 1165. Further, petitioner did not provide any other evidence to explain its manner of accounting for the properties. We note that petitioner's characterization of the Exchange Property in its records is consistent with its treatment of the Pacific Street Subdivision in Highland, California. In regard to 75 lots in the Pacific Street Subdivision, petitioner built 25 houses, and installed only improvements on the remaining 50 lots. However, petitioner kept all 75 lots in the work-in-progress account until they were sold in 1980. Petitioner classified income from the sale of the houses and the unimproved lots as ordinary income. Petitioner also listed its residential development in Yucaipa under work-in-progress account No. 1160- 81, and its residential development in La Quinata under work-in- progress account No. 1160-85. This is compared to petitioner's treatment of the Leedom Tract, 41 unimproved lots. While Leedom was initially in 1978 classified in the work-in-progress account, petitioner later in 1985 reclassified the property into the "unimproved land and vacant lots" account No. 1280-31. In regard to the Exchange Property, which was unimproved land, petitioner never moved thePage: Previous 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 Next
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