Nicholas M. Romer - Page 33




                                       - 33 -                                         
               We have held on numerous occasions that merely presenting              
          the Court with a “blizzard” of receipts and other documents                 
          “falls woefully short of meeting the requirements” of section               
          274.  Lynch v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1983-173; see Gilman v.             
          Commissioner, 72 T.C. 730 (1979); Rutz v. Commissioner, 66 T.C.             
          879 (1976).  Giving petitioner the benefit of the doubt, however,           
          we have painstakingly scoured petitioner’s documentary evidence             
          in an attempt to decipher whether, in the aggregate or otherwise,           
          petitioner presented adequate records to substantiate any of                
          these alleged travel expenses under section 274.  On the basis of           
          our review of all the evidence, we conclude that petitioner has             
          failed to comply with the statutory requirements of section 274.            
          Petitioner’s detailed but highly self-serving and noncredible               
          testimony does nothing to cure these infirmities.                           
               Moreover, the record does not establish which, if any, of              
          the expenses at issue were incurred in connection with trips that           
          required petitioner to sleep or rest, within the meaning of                 
          United States v. Correll, supra, so as to constitute expenses for           
          travel “away from home” within the meaning of section 162(a)(2).            
          On brief, petitioner suggests that he satisfies the “sleep or               
          rest” rule because the “typical charter flight” was of such                 
          duration that FAA requirements would require the pilot to rest              
          for “several hours”.  Nothing in the record specifically                    
          establishes, however, on which trips petitioner might have rested           
          or for how long, or that the duration of the rest would be                  





Page:  Previous  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011