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Section 7491 does not place the burden of proof on
respondent in this proceeding for at least two reasons. First,
petitioners did not testify, call any witnesses, or otherwise
introduce any evidence–-much less credible evidence--to show
error in respondent’s determinations of their proper income tax
liability.8 Second, petitioners obdurately refused to cooperate
with respondent’s numerous requests for records, information,
documents, and interviews. Ultimately, in a summons enforcement
proceeding, a Federal District Court put Mr. Rinn in jail for his
noncompliance. Only then did Mrs. Rinn finally produce the
records that respondent had requested.
At trial, petitioners submitted a document wherein they
contend that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-
incrimination relieves them of any duty to cooperate with
respondent’s requests for information. Apart from submitting
this document, however, petitioners have not expressly invoked
any Fifth Amendment privilege against testifying in this
proceeding, nor have they alleged any reasonable expectation that
testifying in this proceeding or cooperating with respondent’s
8 The parties stipulated some facts, including certain joint
exhibits, consisting primarily of the notices of deficiency (to
which are appended extensive workpapers upon which the deficiency
determinations were based) and petitioners’ 1993 and 1994 joint
Federal income tax returns. None of the stipulations or
associated exhibits tend to show any error in respondent’s
determinations, apart from those respondent has conceded in this
proceeding.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011