- 4 - of $380.47, and an addition to tax under section 6651(a)(2) of $338.20 for the 1997 taxable year. Petitioner filed a petition on July 8, 2002. At the time of filing the petition, petitioner resided in Menlo Park, California. Respondent’s Fresno Appeals Office issued petitioner a letter dated November 5, 2002, explaining: The reason that * * * [respondent] was looking for a tax return was due to the brokerage reporting gross sales that does not include basis. It was assumed that without any verification that there was any basis in the stock, the total sales price was considered the gain. Based on that information, * * * [respondent] is required to request a tax return and if no tax return is provided or information showing a tax return was not required, then * * *[respondent] would have no other choice than to consider that the sales price of the stock was the gain. The instructions state for tax year 1997 state [sic] you are not required to file a return but you are required under Internal Revenue Code Section 6001 to keep your records to show to * * * [respondent] that you are not required to file a return. The instructions do not state that since you do not need to file a return, that you do not need to keep records. Usually you should keep your records for 3 years after the due date of the tax return. So in the case of your 1997 tax return, you should have kept your records regarding that return until 4/15/01. The first contact by * * * [respondent] was a letter dated 8/2/99. Providing your records to the IRS, which would have shown that you were not required to file a return, would have resolved this case long ago. However, in the interest of settling the case, Appeals Officer James E. VanGaasbeck offered to accept, without further substantiation, petitioner’s statements in his letter of December 6, 1999, that his gross income for 1997 was $6,113.78. ThePage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011