Oliver W. and Edna D. Wilson - Page 44




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          of the renovation of the 5-4 Ballroom, a letter from Joan M.                
          Miller, confirming petitioners’ payment of $5,888 of chapter 11             
          bankruptcy costs in 1993,18 and a statement from Rafael Rosario             
          acknowledging that he was paid $3,000 for “carpentry, painting,             
          and electrical work” at the 5401-9 S. Broadway property.  Neither           
          petitioners nor their accountant offered any satisfactory                   
          explanation as to why additional documentation was not provided.            
               Although petitioners did not introduce substantiation to               
          fully document all the Schedule C expenses they claimed for 1992            
          and 1993, petitioners did substantiate some expenses.  In                   
          addition, we are convinced from our review of all the evidence              
          that petitioners incurred and paid at least some of the claimed             
          expenses for which documentation has not been provided.                     
          Unfortunately, with respect to most of the undocumented expenses,           
          petitioners did not provide any factual record from which we                
          might estimate the expenses they paid.  See Vanicek v.                      
          Commissioner, 85 T.C. 731, 743 (1985).  Therefore, using our best           
          judgment and bearing heavily against petitioners because this               
          inexactitude is of their own making, Cohan v. Commissioner, 39              
          F.2d 540, 543-544 (2d Cir. 1930), we find that the following                
          expenses have either been documented or are allowable under Cohan           
          with respect to the 5401-9 S. Broadway property as follows:                 


               18Petitioners did not offer any explanation of why they                
          claimed the bankruptcy costs were deductible.                               





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