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III. Constitutionality of the Filing Requirement
Our tax system, the Code, and the Tax Court have been firmly
established as constitutional. Crain v. Commissioner, 737 F.2d
1417, 1417-1418 (5th Cir. 1984); Ginter v. Southern, 611 F.2d
1226, 1229 (8th Cir. 1979). Furthermore, each of petitioner’s
specific constitutional arguments has been resoundingly rejected
by the courts. See, e.g., 4th Amendment--Edwards v.
Commissioner, 680 F.2d 1268, 1270 (9th Cir. 1982) (“Requiring
taxpayers, who institute civil proceedings protesting deficiency
notices, to produce records or face dismissal constitutes no
invasion of privacy or unlawful search and seizure”);4 5th
Amendment--United States v. Sullivan, 274 U.S. 259, 263 (1927)
(ruling that taxpayers cannot use the Fifth Amendment to “refuse
to make any return at all”);5 9th Amendment--Tingle v.
Commissioner, 73 T.C. 816, 816 (1980)(ruling that the Ninth
Amendment was “not intended to abridge the specific power of
4 Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886), relied on by
petitioner, is inapplicable in that the case dealt exclusively
with a criminal, rather than a civil, matter. See also Mapp v.
Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961)(same); Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S.
383 (1914)(same).
5 In order for an individual to claim the applicability of
the privilege against self-incrimination, there must be a “real
and appreciable danger” from the “substantial hazards of self
incrimination”, and the individual must have “reasonable cause to
apprehend [such] danger from a direct answer to questions posed
to him”. Neff v. Commissioner, 615 F.2d 1235, 1239 (9th Cir.
1980) (quoting Hoffman v. United States, 341 U.S. 479, 486
(1951)).
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