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were publicly available (i.e., at a courthouse) and from UTA (the
opposing party in the dispute involving petitioner’s
termination), and because respondent eventually received some of
these documents from Mr. Berkus, albeit several months later, the
fact that petitioner did not provide this information to
respondent does not mean petitioner was uncooperative.
Petitioner also argues that, because petitioner’s 1997 return was
available from the service center, the fact that petitioner did
not provide his 1997 return to respondent does not indicate that
petitioner was uncooperative. We disagree.
The fact that respondent could obtain documents and/or
information from another source, and/or did eventually obtain the
documents and/or information from another source, does not
relieve petitioner from his obligation to cooperate if petitioner
desires the benefit of the provisions of section 7491(a).18 If
this were not the case, taxpayers could be affirmatively
uncooperative but still gain the benefit of section 7491(a) so
long as the Commissioner was able to obtain the information that
he sought.
Mr. Harbin’s conclusory statements that he was cooperative
on behalf of Mr. Polone are unpersuasive. Mr. Harbin stated that
in cases involving celebrities, it is his business practice to
18 We note that it takes the Commissioner between 6 and 8
weeks to obtain return information from his internal
recordkeeping centers. Additionally, the information contained
on a transcript of account is not as clear as the actual return.
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