Michael L. and Susan Barnard - Page 25




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          Bernard and the four checks payable to the contractor for its               
          $32,940 of services, covered an expense greater than $10,000.8              
          Under the facts herein, petitioners’ use of the cashier’s checks            
          does not convince us that they used those checks with the                   
          requisite intent to evade Federal income tax.  To be sure, an               
          individual’s use of cashier’s checks to pay personal expenses               
          does not necessarily mean that the individual did so to evade the           
          payment of Federal income tax.  Such is especially true here                
          where petitioners regularly used cashier’s checks to pay personal           
          expenses during years before the subject years.                             
               Respondent also finds a fraudulent intent on the part of               
          petitioners in the fact that Nanny’s kept imperfect records and             
          that Nanny’s did not deposit all of its cash receipts into the              
          business account.  We do not do likewise.  Nanny’s is an entity             
          separate from petitioners, and we do not consider it appropriate            
          under the facts herein to impute Nanny’s actions to petitioners.            
          See, e.g., Estate of Feinsmith v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-            
          194.  In fact, respondent’s only exception is to the fact that              
          Nanny’s failed to deposit all of its gross receipts into its                
          business account, acknowledging explicitly that petitioners did             
          deposit in their bank accounts all of the income that they                  


               8 We also bear in mind that petitioners, on Sept. 18, 1989,            
          knowingly subjected themselves to the Bank’s practice of                    
          reporting cash transactions totaling more than $10,000 when they            
          purchased one of the checks payable to the contractor and made              
          their cash payment on the third loan.                                       





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