- 10 -
who had the burden of proof, met the burden of proving the
negative by providing credible testimony). The copy of
petitioner’s electronically filed 1997 return produced to the
Court does not indicate whether petitioner attached a waiver or
subsequently mailed a waiver to the Internal Revenue Service. We
are unable to find that a waiver was not attached or mailed
separately, along with Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax
Declaration for Electronic Filing.4 Thus, we cannot conclude
that respondent met his burden of proof.
Accordingly, petitioner is allowed the claimed dependency
exemption deductions.
Issue 2. Head-of-Household Filing Status
For a taxpayer to qualify for head-of-household filing
status, he must satisfy the requirements of section 2(b). An
individual shall be considered a head of household if he is not
married at the close of the taxable year, is not a surviving
spouse, and, in relevant part, maintains as his home a household
4 Respondent asserts in his answer to amended petition that
Ms. Richards initially claimed two children as dependents;
accordingly, respondent concluded that she did not sign a waiver.
We note that while Ms. Richards initially claimed her two
daughters as dependents on her separate income tax return, she
did not claim the children as dependents on her amended return
for the 1997 tax year and she testified at trial that she was not
entitled to. Ms. Richards’s treatment of the dependency
exemption deductions on her original and amended returns does not
affect the outcome of this issue as to petitioner. Nevertheless,
allowing petitioner the dependency exemption deductions does not
create a result inconsistent with Ms. Richards’s treatment of
this item.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011