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to failure to file a timely estate return, the Supreme Court
concluded that “The time has come for a rule with as ‘bright’ a
line as can be drawn consistent with the statute and implementing
regulations.” (Fn. ref. omitted.) Id. at 248. The Supreme
Court stated that reliance “on the erroneous advice of counsel
concerning a question of law”, such as advice “that it was
unnecessary to file a return * * * may constitute reasonable
cause for failure to file a return.” Id. at 250. But the
Supreme Court concluded that Boyle had not relied on Keyser’s
legal advice but had, as a practical matter, delegated to Keyser
the duty of seeing to it that the estate tax return was filed
timely. The Supreme Court ended its opinion as follows, id. at
252:
It requires no special training or effort to
ascertain a deadline and make sure that it is met. The
failure to make a timely filing of a tax return is not
excused by the taxpayer’s reliance on an agent, and
such reliance is not “reasonable cause” for a late
filing under �6651(a)(1). The judgment of the Court of
Appeals is reversed.
In Estate of La Meres v. Commissioner, 98 T.C. 294 (1992),
we reached the opposite result, based on the facts there of
record. In Estate of La Meres the estate’s personal
representative retained a lawyer as counsel to the estate. The
personal representative knew when the estate tax return was
originally due. When the original due date approached and
appraisals were not ready, the personal representative consulted
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