- 64 -
choose, on the taxpayer whose inexactitude is of his own making.
See Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 F.2d at 543-544.
We again note that the funds of Garry's estate were
commingled with funds owned solely by the children. For this and
other reasons, petitioner's purported accounting of Garry's
estate is unreliable and simply does not permit us to determine
the amount of family farm expenses actually paid with decedent's
funds. It also falls far short of the kind of accounting usually
expected of a fiduciary with respect to the funds under his
control.
II. Is Petitioner Entitled To Deduct a Portion of Land Bank Loan
as Unpaid Mortgage?
In 1980, Garry's estate agreed to borrow $950,000 from the
Land Bank. According to the promissory note, eight parties
(including decedent individually and as personal representative
of Garry's estate, the children, and the children’s spouses) were
jointly and severally liable for repayment of the Land Bank loan.
These parties also executed a mortgage to secure the loan. The
17(...continued)
659 (1992), where, after applying the rule set forth in Cohan v.
Commissioner, 39 F.2d 540 (2d Cir. 1930), we wrote that "We are
satisfied that these seemingly arbitrary holdings comport with
the admonition of Judge Learned Hand in Commissioner v. Maresi
[citation omitted], that 'The one sure way to do injustice * * *
is to allow nothing whatever upon the excuse that we cannot tell
how much to allow'."
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