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Income Tax Regs. A duly authorized agent may sign a return if
the taxpayer is prevented from doing so by reason of disease or
injury, continuous absence from the United States, or upon
written request to the local Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
District Director, if the District Director determines that good
cause exists for permitting the agent to make the return. See
sec. 1.6012-1(a)(5), Income Tax Regs.
In the present case, petitioner did not sign his 1987, 1988,
or 1989 tax returns. Instead, Wilson, petitioner’s employee,
signed the returns. Wilson was not authorized by petitioner to
sign the returns. Furthermore, even if she had been so
authorized, none of the circumstances enumerated in sec. 1.6012-
1(a)(5), Income Tax Regs., existed. Thus, she could not validly
sign petitioner’s individual income tax returns. Therefore,
because the 1987, 1988, and 1989 returns were not signed by
petitioner or an authorized agent pursuant to sec. 1.6061-1(a),
Income Tax Regs., they do not constitute returns of petitioner.7
B. Jurisdiction To Determine an Increased Deficiency Under
Section 6214(a)
Respondent treated petitioner’s 1987, 1988, and 1989 tax
returns as valid returns of petitioner at the time the notices of
7 Although we have found that the 1987, 1988, and 1989
returns were not proper returns that would begin the period
within which respondent could assess tax, nevertheless the
returns are evidence of what petitioner represented to his return
preparer. In that regard, petitioner stipulated these documents
and did not object to their being part of the record. As such,
the returns constitute admissions.
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