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W-2), claimed the entire withholding as an overpayment, and
directed that the entire overpayment be “Applied to Prior Taxes”.
Petitioner filed this tax return on October 16, 1995.4 As of
that date, petitioner and Mary were separated, but still legally
married. Petitioner signed Mary’s name on the tax return. Mary
did not prepare a separate tax return for 1994 at that time
because she understood that petitioner was preparing a joint tax
return for them in accordance with the way their joint tax
returns had been prepared up to that time. This pattern
continued until August 1997.
Sometime during 1993, petitioner met with agents of the
Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service
to discuss his income tax liability. In July of 1996, petitioner
was tried and convicted of failing to file Federal income tax
returns for 1989, 1990, and 1991, in violation of section 7203.5
In August of 1997, respondent was in the process of
conducting a civil audit of the joint tax returns petitioner and
Mary filed for 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1994. Mary learned of
4Petitioner received an automatic 4-month extension for
filing the 1994 tax return; he then requested and received an
additional 2-month extension. Oct. 15, 1995, was a Sunday. The
1994 joint tax return was timely filed. See supra note 2.
5Mary testified that petitioner filed joint tax returns for
the two of them, generally, and specifically for 1988, 1989,
1990, 1991, and 1994. The record does not indicate when these
joint tax returns were filed, except for the 1994 tax return. As
to the joint tax returns for 1988 through 1991, we gather that
they were filed at some point before August 1997.
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