- 18 - return, that it did not include or otherwise report taxable income for 1999 earned by his wife from TGY. The Court rejects as not credible petitioner’s testimony that he could not contact his wife, despite the fact she lived next to him in the travel trailer and signed their joint tax return, to find out either the amount of her TGY income or whether she had reported it to their tax return preparer. Section 6013(d)(3) explicitly provides that “if a joint return is made, the tax shall be computed on the aggregate income and the liability with respect to the tax shall be joint and several.” The filing of a joint return may afford taxpayers significant benefits in the form of lower taxes than would be the case if they elected to file separately. Therefore, unless relief is authorized by section 6015, each spouse should be held liable for the tax due on a joint tax return. In some cases, this Court may afford section 6015(f) relief even though the requesting spouse had knowledge of the tax deficiency or failure to pay the tax when the return was signed and filed. See, e.g., Foor v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2004-54 (concluding that a multitude of favorable factors overcame the taxpayer’s knowledge that the tax shown due would not be paid); Rev. Proc. 2000-15, sec. 4.02, 2000-1 C.B. at 448 (specifying that no single factor is determinative). However, petitioner’s favorable facts in this case are not sufficient to establish an abuse of respondent’sPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011