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Willful neglect is defined as a conscious, intentional failure or
reckless indifference. See United States v. Boyle, 469 U.S. 241,
245 (1985).
We consider first whether petitioner's failure to file a tax
return for 1992 was due to reasonable cause and not to willful
neglect because of his claimed reliance on his return preparer,
Mr. Gargiulo. Mr. Gargiulo advised petitioner that he was not
required to file a tax return for that year since he did not have
the amount of income that would require him to file such a tax
return under section 6012. In this connection, Mr. Gargiulo
testified in pertinent part about the reason why he did not
believe that any portion of the $150,000 assistance payment is
includible in petitioner's income for 1992, as follows:
There was just nothing that duPont ever told us what's
that -- what kind of money it was -- whether it was a
goodwill money for the problems they were causing Mr.
Henry or whether it was a loan to Mr. Henry to be paid
later. The character of the money, I didn't know what
it was.
Nothing in the record indicates that Mr. Henry, who was
aware of the circumstances surrounding du Pont's decision to make
the $150,000 assistance to him in early February 1992, shared
that information with Mr. Gargiulo. Nor does the record show
that Mr. Gargiulo asked du Pont to inform him of those circum-
stances. On the instant record, we find that petitioner has
failed to show that it was reasonable for him to rely on the
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