-8- The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has characterized our test as a widely accepted interpretation that provides a sound approach under the Code. United States v. Hatton, 220 F.3d 1057, 1060-1061 (9th Cir. 2000). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit also views this test as consistent with the policy that a return should obtain tax information with uniformity and completeness to facilitate the physical task of handling and verifying returns. Id. We focus on one requirement of the Supreme Court cases, as articulated in Beard, to determine whether the 1040 document constitutes a return. Under the Beard test, a document must be an honest and genuine endeavor to satisfy the tax law in order to be a return. Zellerbach Paper Co. v. Helvering, supra at 180; Beard v. Commissioner, supra at 777. We doubt that a document containing all zeros and tax protester rhetoric represents an honest and genuine endeavor to satisfy the tax law. See United States v. Moore, 627 F.2d 830, 835 (7th Cir. 1980); United States v. Rickman, supra at 184; Cabirac v. Commissioner, supra; Halcott v. Commissioner, supra. Tax protesters, as a general rule, have not been found to make an honest and genuine attempt to meet the requirements of the Code. United States v. Moore, supra. We agree that the Commissioner should not be forced to accept as a return a document clearly not intended to provide the required information. See id. The timeworn tax protester statements attached to petitioner’s 1040 document indicate that petitionerPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011