- 5 -
The other adjustments for the 3 years in question relate to
petitioners' claimed deductions for charitable contributions and
unreimbursed employee business expenses, all of which were
disallowed for lack of substantiation.
Prior to trial, counsel for respondent mailed three letters
to petitioners offering to meet and to consider any documentary
information they had with respect to the items at issue.
Petitioners never responded to these letters and, at trial,
stated that the letters had been referred to their return
preparer, Mr. Beltran, who had agreed to take the matter up with
respondent. Mr. Beltran never contacted respondent, nor did
petitioners attempt to contact respondent, even though they knew
Mr. Beltran had disregarded his offer of assistance. For the
first time, on the date the case was calendared for trial,
petitioners presented to respondent some documentation to support
their charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee
expenses. Petitioners presented no information with respect to
the disallowed medical expenses for 1997, stating at trial "up
until today, we did not realize that was an issue and we weren't
prepared for that".4
4 The Court observes that, had petitioners followed up on
respondent's three letters, they would have known that this item
was at issue, notwithstanding that the adjustment is clearly set
out in the notice of deficiency.
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