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claims he could not file his 1994 return by its due date because
he had difficulty understanding certain provisions of tax law and
because some of the information he needed to complete his 1994
return was in storage.
In general, uncertainty regarding the application of the
Federal tax laws to a particular set of facts, or the
unavailability of records, does not provide reasonable cause for
failing to file a timely tax return. See Surridge v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-304; Columbus v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1998-60, affd. without published opinion 162 F.3d 1172
(10th Cir. 1998). In any event, the “relocation” issues present
for 1994 had no impact on petitioner’s tax computations for his
1995 and 1996 taxable years. In our view, petitioner could have
exercised ordinary business care and prudence by filing a timely
1994 return using the best information available and then
amending the return to the extent necessary; the 1994
difficulties simply provide no reasonable cause for the failure
to file timely 1995 and 1996 returns. See Estate of Vriniotis v.
Commissioner, 79 T.C. 298 (1982); Tarakci v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 2000-358. We accordingly sustain respondent’s
determinations that the failure to file addition applies to each
of those years.
In the deficiency notices, respondent applied section
6651(c)(1), which limits the addition under section 6651(a)(1) by
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