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evidence is equally balanced, the court shall find that
the Secretary has not sustained his burden of proof.
[Emphasis added.]
S. Rept. 105-174, at 45-46 (1998), 1998-3 C.B. 537, 581-582.
Petitioners contend that petitioner had a $149,200 cash
hoard on December 31, 1996. Thus, we first decide whether
petitioners introduced evidence of petitioner’s cash hoard which,
after critical analysis, we would find sufficient upon which to
base a decision on the issue if no contrary evidence were
submitted (without regard to the judicial presumption of IRS
correctness). See id. at 46, 1998-3 C.B. at 582.
2. Petitioners’ Evidence
Petitioner testified that he accumulated a cash hoard over a
30-year period from his various jobs and from selling two houses
he owned. He introduced bank records showing that he had a safe
deposit box which he entered 53 times from December 1987 to March
1998. Danney Sykes and Gary Sykes each testified that they saw
petitioner with a large amount of cash on several occasions.
Petitioner testified that, by 1970, he had saved $4,000 from
working at a store and doing odd jobs, and that, by 1971, he had
saved another $3,000 from working at a pallet mill and as a tree
trimmer. He said that he saved about half of his income from
International Paper from 1973 to 1981 and that he had saved
$54,000 from International Paper by 1981. He testified that he
saved $6,000 from a settlement he received from International
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