John R. Hernandez - Page 10




                                        - 9 -                                         
          circumstances.  See Neely v. Commissioner, 85 T.C. 934, 947                 
          (1985).  The term “disregard” includes any careless, reckless, or           
          intentional disregard.  Sec. 6662(c).  A disregard of rules or              
          regulations is “careless” if the taxpayer does not exercise                 
          reasonable diligence to determine the correctness of a return               
          position that is contrary to the rule or regulation.  Sec.                  
          1.6662-3(b)(2), Income Tax Regs.  A taxpayer is not liable for              
          the penalty if he shows that there was reasonable cause for the             
          underpayment and that he acted in good faith.  See sec. 6664(c).            
               From the record before us here, we find that petitioner was            
          negligent with respect to whether petitioner was entitled to                
          exclude tax certificate interest under section 103.  Petitioner             
          is a certified public accountant.  In spite of his experience and           
          knowledge, petitioner took a position on his 1994 Federal income            
          tax return that was contrary to case law.  Long before petitioner           
          filed his Federal income tax return for 1994, this Court had                
          issued an opinion directly on point, Barrow v. Commissioner, T.C.           
          Memo. 1983-123.  In Barrow v. Commissioner, supra, we decided               
          that interest income from tax certificates identical to the tax             
          certificates purchased by petitioner was not tax exempt.                    
               With regard to petitioner’s failure to report tax                      
          certificate interest income, which he contends is allocable to              
          other individuals, we find that petitioner did not produce                  
          credible evidence that such interest income was attributable to             






Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011