- 82 -
Petitioner was well aware that her 1987 return and the 1988-
90 joint returns with her husband were not filed timely. All
four returns were filed between August 25, and August 27, 1992,
well after the due dates, including the extended due date for
1987. For 1988-90, petitioner did not furnish the accountant
with information he needed to prepare the returns until after the
return due dates.
Although petitioner testified that the late filings were
largely attributable to her husband’s failure to gather his tax
information and pay his self-employment tax and/or to the
accountant’s delay in completing the returns, she failed to
pursue available alternatives such as insisting on the timely
filing of her 1987 return, timely filing a “married filing
separate return” for 1988-90, or demanding that her husband and
his accountant complete and file the joint returns for 1988-90 by
their due dates using the best information available (and, if
necessary, filing amended returns when the rest of the
information became available). Petitioner’s failure to ensure
that her returns were filed timely under these circumstances
supports the imposition of the delinquency addition to tax. See
Estate of Thomas v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-225.
Consequently, we sustain respondent’s imposition of the section
6651(a)(1) delinquency addition to tax for each of the years at
issue, recomputed in accordance with this opinion.
Page: Previous 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011