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investments for taxable year 2000. The filing threshold for
spouses filing a joint return for taxable year 2000 was $12,950.7
Petitioner’s gross income exceeded the filing threshold for the
2000 taxable year, and petitioner was, therefore, required to
file an income tax return.8
C. Petitioner’s Taxable Income
Petitioner did not attend the trial, nor did he file any
briefs with the Court in support of his position. While
petitioner’s counsel was present at trial to represent
petitioner, neither petitioner nor petitioner’s counsel offered
any reason for petitioner’s absence. Presumably, many facts
relevant to a determination of petitioner’s taxable income would
be peculiarly within petitioner’s personal knowledge and purview.
The fact that petitioner did not appear at trial and did not call
any witnesses or present any evidence is an indication that any
facts which could have been presented by him at trial would have
7 Although petitioner does not allege that he was married at
the end of 2000, petitioner indicated that his marital status on
his Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, for
2001 was married. In any case, the filing threshold for 2000 for
the single filing status and married filing separately filing
status were even lower, $7,200 and $2,800, respectively.
8 In the “Affidavit Statement”, contained in the record,
petitioner makes reference to the constitutionality of the filing
requirement. Our tax system, the Code, and the Tax Court have
been firmly established as constitutional. Crain v.
Commissioner, 737 F.2d 1417, 1417-1418 (5th Cir. 1984); Ginter v.
Southern, 611 F.2d 1226, 1229 (8th Cir. 1979); Rev. Rul. 2005-19,
2005-14 I.R.B. 819.
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