- 39 -
In all three cases, the Court found that the taxpayer's good
faith reliance on the attorney's erroneous advice constituted
reasonable cause. These cases were distinguishable from Boyle
and other cases in which the taxpayer simply delegated all
responsibility for filing to an agent. Estate of La Meres, supra
at 319. In Estate of DiPalma, the attorney for the estate led
the executrix to believe that pending litigation justified
delaying the filing of the estate tax return. Petitioner
compares this to the present situation, where Wang advised
petitioner that no estate tax return would be due because of the
Oak Tree Inn litigation.
The inquiry is whether petitioner relied in good faith on
the accountant's advice with respect to the filing requirement.
The principal difficulty which we have with petitioner's
arguments is that the objective evidence does not necessarily
lead us to the conclusion that Yang was unaware that the return
was due. See Estate of La Meres, supra at 316-317. Examining
the chronology of events, we note that decedent died on June 28,
1989. On March 21, 1990, petitioner filed for an extension of
time to file and to pay the estate tax to March 28, 1991. On
April 11, 1990, respondent approved the Estate's application for
extension of time to file and pay. According to Yang, in the
summer of 1990, Wang told Yang that a return would not be due,
and as a result of this statement, Yang did not ask Wang about
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