- 10 - electronic filings. Section 6061(b), titled "ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES", provides that "The Secretary shall develop procedures for the acceptance of signatures in digital or other electronic form." It authorizes the Secretary to "waive the requirement of a signature" until such procedures are in place. Sec. 6061(b)(1)(A). If there were any doubt, however, as to the application of the statute, it is clear from its legislative history that section 6061(b) was promulgated to promote paperless electronic filing by eliminating the need to file a paper form with a manual signature in addition to the electronic filing. See S. Rept. 105-174 (1998). Furthermore, even if section 6061(b) did authorize the Secretary to waive the signature requirement for any tax return, the language of the statute is discretionary and does not require such a waiver. Petitioner's second argument that the purported return is a valid 1995 Federal income tax return because he and his former spouse intended it to be their joint return at the time of filing also is without merit. We have long held that if an "income tax return is intended by both spouses as a joint return, the absence of the signature of one spouse does not prevent their intention from being realized." Estate of Campbell v. Commissioner, 56 T.C. 1, 12 (1971) (emphasis added); see Ebeling v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-277, affd. without published opinion 76 F.3d 385 (9th Cir. 1996); Hammann v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1987-260.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011