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testimony unpersuasive and self-serving. We also find no
substantiation (nor perceive any rationale) for petitioner’s
claim to a $14,000 deduction for alleged loan repayments to his
PERS account, or to a $14,000 deduction for alleged withholding
from his pay for his wrongful use of his employer’s property.
As to the alimony, petitioner claims a deduction of
$72,013.62 for alimony paid to his first wife. Petitioner paid
that sum into court in 1990 in connection with a judgment
rendered in his divorce proceeding with Vera Banks. The court
transferred the funds to Vera Banks in 1993. Petitioner concedes
that he deducted this alimony for 1993 but claims that section
461(f) provides that the alimony was deductible in 1990.
While we agree that the deduction would otherwise be allowed
in 1990, see sec. 461(f), the circumstances of this case prohibit
petitioner from claiming the deduction in that year. The “duty
of consistency”, sometimes referred to as quasi-estoppel, is an
equitable doctrine that Federal courts apply in appropriate cases
to prevent unfair avoidance of tax. Beltzer v. United States,
495 F.2d 211, 212 (8th Cir. 1974); Cluck v. Commissioner, 105
T.C. 324 (1995); LeFever v. Commissioner, 103 T.C. 525 (1994),
affd. 100 F.3d 778 (10th Cir. 1996). The doctrine “is based on
the theory that the taxpayer owes the Commissioner the duty to be
consistent in the tax treatment of items and will not be
permitted to benefit from the taxpayer's own prior error or
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