Randall and Lynn Bishop - Page 11




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         Typically, the daily planner entry includes a dollar amount                  
         allegedly representing the cost of renting the room in which the             
         seminar was held.  Petitioners have furnished no evidence that               
         any of those alleged rental costs were in fact incurred:  No                 
         canceled checks, no receipts, no inclusion in the NationsBank                
         VISA card summary.  We find that, having offered no evidence of              
         actual payment, petitioners have failed to sustain their burden              
         of establishing that they are entitled to a rental expense                   
         deduction.  See Hyde v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-419 ("This             
         Court is not bound to accept the unverified, undocumented                    
         testimony of petitioner”), affd. without published opinion 9 F.3d            
         112 (7th Cir. 1993).  By not offering independent evidence that              
         the seminars even took place (e.g., brochures, attendance lists,             
         or the testimony of one or more attendees), petitioners have                 
         failed even to furnish a basis for the Court to estimate, under              
         the authority of Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 F.2d 540 (2d Cir.                 
         1930), the amount allowable as rental expense.  As we stated in              
         Hyde v. Commissioner, supra:                                                 
              However, in order to make an estimation, ‘there [must]                  
              be sufficient evidence to satisfy the trier that at                     
              least the amount allowed in the estimate was in fact                    
              spent or incurred for the stated purpose’.  Williams v.                 
              United States, 245 F.2d 559, 560 (5th Cir. 1957).                       
              Until the trier has that assurance from the record,                     
              relief to the taxpayer would be “unguided largesse”.                    
              Id.                                                                     
              Petitioners have failed to establish that they are entitled             
         to any deduction for rental expense.                                         





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