- 37 - education, apparent competency, and our longstanding and mutually productive relationship." Petitioner contends that respondent did not present any evidence to contradict that she reasonably relied upon her accountant's advice. However, as we have noted, the burden of proof is on petitioner to establish (1) that the failure did not result from willful neglect and (2) that the failure was due to reasonable cause. In light of this burden, we note that petitioner did not call the accountant to testify to corroborate Yang's testimony. See Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1158, 1165 (1946), affd. 162 F.2d 513 (10th Cir. 1947). In light of Yang's uncorroborated testimony, we consider the following facts to evaluate whether petitioner has met the burden of proving that Yang reasonably relied upon the accountant's advice. The executrix Yang admitted that she knew that decedent's assets totaled more than $1,200,000 at his death. This clearly meets the filing threshold as required by law. Petitioner contends that the executrix relied upon the accountant's statement that "the Estate Tax Return would probably not be required." To support its position, petitioner relies on United States v. Boyle, supra at 250. In Boyle, the executor argued that the failure to file the return was due to reasonable cause, reliancePage: Previous 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Next
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