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income-generating activity. The rule is based on the assumption
that a taxpayer may have difficulty proving that he did not
receive unreported income. See Karme v. Commissioner, 673 F.2d
1062, 1065 (9th Cir. 1982) (“the taxpayer may face practical
difficulties in attempting to refute the Commissioner’s assertion
that the taxpayer received unreported income” (original quotation
marks omitted)), affg. 73 T.C. 1163 (1980). The rule is
satisfied if the Commissioner provides a “minimal evidentiary
foundation” linking the taxpayer with the source of the income in
question. Weimerskirch v. Commissioner, supra at 361; see also
Palmer v. United States, 116 F.3d 1309, 1313 (9th Cir. 1997).2
2 It appears that, in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit (the Court of Appeals), under the line of cases beginning
with Weimerskirch v. Commissioner, 596 F.2d 358 (9th Cir. 1979),
revg. 67 T.C. 672 (1977), the burden is on the Commissioner to
show the link between the taxpayer and the source of the supposed
income. See, e.g., Palmer v. United States, 116 F.3d 1309, 1313
(9th Cir. 1997) (“Where the IRS bases its assessment on an
allegation of unreported income, the Service must show some
minimal evidence linking the taxpayer to the source of that
income before the presumption of correctness will attach.”). In
cases of unreported income governed by the jurisprudence of this
Court (going behind the notice of deficiency only “[o]n rare
occasions” involving “unreported illegal income”, Shriver v.
Commissioner, 85 T.C. 1, 3 (1985) (emphasis added)), we have held
that it is the taxpayer who has the burden of showing that the
Commissioner has failed to link him with some illegal income-
generating activity. See id.; see also, e.g., McWilliams v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-454; Jones v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1994-230, affd. per curiam 68 F.3d 460 (4th Cir. 1995);
Schaeffer v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-206; Franklin v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993-184; Dooley v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1992-39; Chagra v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1991-366, affd.
without published opinion 990 F.2d 1250 (2d Cir. 1993). Of
course, under the doctrine of Golsen v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 742
(continued...)
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