Laurel Ann Curtis - Page 10




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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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