- 9 - burden of proof as to any underlying deficiency. See Rule 142(a). A. Respondent's Indirect Method of Proof When a taxpayer fails to keep sufficient records to enable respondent to determine his correct tax liability, respondent may compute the taxpayer's income by any method that clearly reflects income. See secs. 446(b), 6001; Sutherland v. Commissioner, 32 T.C. 862 (1959). Respondent used the cash method to indirectly prove that petitioner had unreported income for the years in issue. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held that the cash method is an acceptable method for calculating a taxpayer's unreported income. See United States v. Hogan, 886 F.2d 1497, 1509 (7th Cir. 1989). In United States v. Hogan, supra at 1508- 1509, the Court of Appeals stated: [The cash method] is a variation on the "cash expenditures" method * * *. The cash expenditures method determines the amount of unreported income by "establishing the amount of [defendant's] purchases and services which are not attributable to the resources at hand at the beginning of the year or to non-taxable receipts during the year." If the amount of purchases and services exceeds defendant's reported income, resources on hand, and nontaxable receipts, the jury may infer that the defendant underreported income. Like the cash expenditures method, the cash method focuses on the taxpayer's sources and uses of income. Unlike the cash expenditures method, however, the tax expert considers only coin and currency when using the cash method, ignoring assets and purchases that do not generate cash.12 * * * Sources for cash include cashPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011