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Background
A. Petitioners’ Income Tax Return for 1997
On or about May 7, 1998, petitioners Rainer B. and Sonja D.
Wagner (petitioners) submitted to respondent a Form 1040, U.S.
Individual Income Tax Return, for the taxable year 1997. On
their Form 1040, petitioners listed their filing status as
“married filing joint return” and described their occupations as
“TST 2” and “Clerk”, respectively.
Petitioners entered zeros on applicable lines of the income
portion of their Form 1040, specifically including line 7 for
wages, line 22 for total income, and lines 32 and 33 for adjusted
gross income. Petitioners also entered a zero on line 53 for
total tax. Petitioners then claimed a refund in the amount of
$16,149.18, which amount was equal to the Federal income tax that
purportedly had been withheld from their wages.
Petitioners attached to their Form 1040 a two-page
typewritten statement that stated, in part, as follows:
I * * * am submitting this as part of my 1997 income
tax return even though I know that no section of the
Internal Revenue Code:
1) Establishes an income tax “liability” * * *;
2) Provides that income taxes “have to be paid on the
basis of a return” * * *.
3) In addition to the above, I am filing even though
the “Privacy Act Notice” as contained in a 1040 booklet
clearly informs me that I am not required to file. It
does so in at least two places.
a) In one place, it states that I need only file a
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