- 41 - 1956-112; Hebrank v. Commissioner, 81 T.C. 640, 642 (1983). Thus, respondent must establish that petitioner underpaid his taxes for each year in issue and that some part of the underpayment for each year is due to fraud. DiLeo v. Commissioner, supra at 873. 1. Clear and Convincing Evidence of Underpayment “To prove an underpayment, the Commissioner is not required to establish the precise amount of the deficiency determined by him.” Id.; see Otsuki v. Commissioner, 53 T.C. 96, 105 (1969). “However, he cannot discharge his burden by simply relying on the taxpayer’s failure to prove error in his determination of the deficiency.” DiLeo v. Commissioner, supra at 873. The Commissioner need only establish that the taxpayer received unreported income and that the nondisclosure resulted in a tax deficiency. United States v. Campbell, 351 F.2d 336, 338 (2d Cir. 1965); Elwert v. United States, 231 F.2d 928, 931 (9th Cir. 1956); United States v. Bender, 218 F.2d 869, 871-72 (7th Cir. 1955); Langworthy v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-218. When the allegations of fraud are intertwined with unreported and indirectly reconstructed income, the Commissioner can satisfy his burden of proving the underpayment in one of two ways: (1) By proving a likely source of the unreported income; or (2) where the taxpayer alleges a nontaxable source, the Commissioner may meet his burden by disproving the taxpayer’sPage: Previous 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011