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The second issue for decision is whether petitioner is
entitled to miscellaneous itemized deductions for employee
business expenses in each of the years in issue. Petitioner
claimed miscellaneous itemized deductions for employee business
expenses in the amounts of $14,875.54 for 1995 and $5,974.66 for
1996. Respondent disallowed the miscellaneous itemized
deductions in full because petitioner had not established both
that the expenses shown were paid or incurred during the taxable
year and that they were ordinary and necessary to his business.
Section 162(a) allows a deduction for the ordinary and
necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in
carrying on a trade or business. A taxpayer may be in the trade
or business of being an employee. See Primuth v. Commissioner,
54 T.C. 374, 377-378 (1970). In order for a taxpayer to be
engaged in a trade or business, “the taxpayer must be involved in
the activity with continuity and regularity”. Commissioner v.
Groetzinger, 480 U.S. 23, 35 (1987). An ordinary expense is one
that relates to a transaction “of common or frequent occurrence
in the type of business involved”, Deputy v. du Pont, 308 U.S.
488, 495 (1940), and a necessary expense is one that is
“appropriate and helpful” for “the development of the
petitioner’s business,” Welch v. Helvering, 290 U.S. 111, 113
(1933). Finally, job search expenses are deductible under
section 162(a) to the extent they are incurred in searching for
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