Steven K. Stoddard and Ellen M. Stoddard - Page 25




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          Claimed Rental Expense Deductions                                           
               In Schedules E of their 1996 and 1997 joint returns, peti-             
          tioners claimed rental expense deductions of $29,382.66 and                 
          $17,438, respectively, with respect to the Doon Way residence.              
          Respondent determined to disallow those claimed deductions.                 
               We turn first to the rental expense deductions that peti-              
          tioners claimed in Schedule E of their 1996 joint return.  It is            
          respondent’s position that petitioners are not entitled to the              
          rental expense deductions claimed for 1996 because they have                
          failed to establish (1) that the expenses in question were                  
          incurred or, if incurred, that those expenses were incurred with            
          respect to the Doon Way residence and (2) that those rental                 
          expense deductions are not disallowed by section 280A.  Petition-           
          ers introduced no evidence supporting their entitlement to those            
          deductions.  On the instant record, we find that petitioners have           
          failed to carry their burden of proving that they are entitled to           
          deduct the rental expenses claimed in Schedule E of their 1996              
          joint return.                                                               
               We turn next to the rental expense deductions that petition-           
          ers claimed in Schedule E of their 1997 joint return.  On brief,            
          respondent concedes that petitioners incurred certain rental                
          expenses with respect to the Doon Way residence.14  However,                

               14At trial, petitioners introduced into the record certain             
          checks to establish that during 1997 they paid certain expenses             
          for advertising, cleaning and maintenance, utilities, and insur-            
          ance.  Those checks, when totaled for each such category of                 
          expense, exceed the total amount of expenses that petitioners               
                                                             (continued...)           




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