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Petitioners resided in New York, New York, at the time the
petition was filed.
The facts may be summarized as follows. During 1997, the
year before the Court, petitioner was not an employee and was not
engaged in any trade or business. Petitioner testified that his
wife “contributes” $100 every 2 weeks for his “library
attendance”. Petitioners deducted $3,700 on their 1997 tax
return,1 which represents the cost of petitioner’s transportation
to and from the libraries and his meals. As far as we can
determine, since at least 1980 to 1997, petitioner has had an
ongoing employment or wrongful discharge dispute with the State
of New York. The following excerpt from the transcript explains
petitioner’s position:
THE COURT: But you are not engaged in a trade or
business, are you?
THE WITNESS: * * * I am not. But what happens is in
the civil service law, in order to get paid, you have to
maintain a posture of ready, willing and able to be restored
from the preferred list, or whatever. And what happens is
that has been my method or means of keeping myself ready,
willing and able to be employed.
* * * * * * *
I am not receiving a penny [of income]. See, what happens
is, when the State of New York refused to restore me from
the preferred list, they refused to provide me with any
interpretation of whatever it was that they -– reasons they
1 The record does not explain the difference between $100
every 2 weeks ($2,400) and the $3,700 deduction petitioners
claimed on their return.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011