- 114 - informed business decisions is persuasive evidence that the business activity was not engaged in for profit. Burger v. Commissioner, 809 F.2d at 359. Further, with respect to the cattle and the orange grove, the record and petitioner’s testimony show that he had a very primitive expertise in those activities. For example, even though petitioner noted the importance of the age of cattle as an “economic factor” in their “economic production”, he could not testify from personal knowledge regarding the age of the cattle he acquired from Mr. Partin. This indicates to us a lack of a bona fide profit motivation. Petitioner did not provide evidence of the amount of time that he devoted to the particular activities during the tax years at issue, or any evidence that he was required to withdraw from his real estate business to devote more time to any of those activities. See McCarthy v. Commissioner, supra; sec. 1.183- 2(b)(3), Income Tax Regs. On the record before us, we find that petitioner was not engaged in a trade or business with respect to the orange grove, cattle, and Ferrari activities. Taxpayers must substantiate any expenses which they claim as deductions. See Hradesky v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 87, 89-90 (1975), affd. 540 F.2d 821 (5th Cir. 1976); Tarakci v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-358.71 Further, to be an 71Sec. 274(d) provides for more stringent substantiation (continued...)Page: Previous 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011