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as due to negligence in the absence of clear and convincing
evidence to the contrary. Petitioner argues that he “could not
have filed a tax * * * [return] on 1099 forms he never received
due to his incarceration.” He also implies that, because he
never paid taxes (on account of the excess of his rental property
and other allegedly deductible expenses and exemptions over his
total income), he had a reasonable basis for believing that he
did not owe tax for the audit year. Even if we accept as fact
that petitioner did not receive the 1988 information returns
mailed to him, he must have known of the investments that gave
rise to them.11 Therefore, he should have been aware of all or a
portion of the income generated by those investments and of the
probability that information returns had been issued with respect
to those investments. There is no evidence that he could not
have arranged for the information returns to be sent to him in
prison. In addition, petitioner’s consistent adherence to an
improper reporting position for prior years with respect to the
deductibility of losses from his rental properties (discussed
supra in Section IV) does not constitute a reasonable basis for
believing that there was no tax due for the audit year. As a
result, petitioner has failed to rebut the presumption of
negligence, under section 6653(g), arising out of his failure to
11 Income from several of the same investments was listed
on the 1987 Form 1040.
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