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and to withdraw money or to write checks from their joint bank
accounts.13
1. Knowledge, or Reason To Know, About the Items of
Community Income Reported on Petitioner’s Return
Petitioner did not argue that she did not know about the
$723 of interest income or the $2,180 in distributions from her
IRA that were reported on her return.
However, with respect to the $31,385 of wages petitioner
purportedly earned from Premium Fresh Juice, petitioner testified
that Mr. Bennett placed her on his company’s payroll without her
knowledge.14 In evaluating whether petitioner knew, or had
13 We have granted relief from joint and several liability
on a joint return in cases involving an unsophisticated spouse
and a controlling spouse who misled, controlled, or hid financial
matters from the unsophisticated spouse. See, e.g., Guth v.
Commissioner, 897 F.2d 441, 442 (9th Cir. 1990), affg. T.C. Memo.
1987-522; Price v. Commissioner, 887 F.2d 959 (9th Cir. 1989);
Laird v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-564. These cases involved
relief from joint and several liability on a joint return
pursuant to former sec. 6013 and sec. 6015 rather than relief
under sec. 66. However, we believe that interpretations of
spousal relief from joint liability are instructive to our
interpretation of equitable relief from community income. See,
e.g., Beck v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-198.
14 Although we previously concluded that petitioner had
knowledge or reason to know of Mr. Bennett’s wages from Premium
Fresh Juice for purposes of sec. 66(c)(3) because a taxpayer’s
knowledge of a particular item of community income is determined
with reference to knowledge of a particular income-producing
activity, see supra pp. 18-19, that conclusion has no bearing on
the wages purportedly earned by petitioner. Although both
petitioner’s purported wages and Mr. Bennett’s wages were from
Premium Fresh Juice, they are distinctly different. We have
concluded that petitioner, unlike Mr. Bennett, did not perform
services for Premium Fresh Juice and, thus, amounts paid to her
(continued...)
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