Linda K. Haltom - Page 14

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         expenses related to remodeling their house and building the pool,            
         expenses with which Linda had no familiarity and thus no basis               
         for comparison,7 the $30,000 difference was not enough for Linda             
         to suspect that Jerry was keeping income off their returns.  See             
         Pietromonaco, 3 F.3d at 1347 (requesting spouse had no reason to             
         know when expenses were less than twice reported income).  Thus,             
         we find that a reasonable person in Linda's position would not               
         suspect that something was going on.                                         
              We note that we compared the aggregate expenses and income              
         from 1990 through 1992.  See supra note 6 (comparing expenses and            
         income for 1993).  This raises a potential issue unaddressed by              
         either party--whether for any one year those extra expenses were             
         so out-of-whack that they should have triggered the duty of                  
         inquiry.  Our own rough calculation is that in 1991, the Haltoms’            
         adjusted gross income of $51,901 was less than half of their                 

              6(...continued)                                                         
          did not have access.  He also gave Linda an additional $30,000              
          that she deposited into the joint checking account.  These                  
          amounts equal roughly $275,000.  We exclude $40,000 of payments             
          for his cars which Linda did not know about to arrive at                    
          $235,000.  The income the Haltoms reported for those 3 years was            
          $205,828.                                                                   
               In 1993, the Haltoms reported $124,976 in adjusted gross               
          income on their tax return, while the total Mr. Haltom embezzled            
          was $21,652; the amount embezzled was so small compared to their            
          AGI that it would have passed unnoted amidst all their legitimate           
          income that year.                                                           
               7 See Ferrarese, T.C. Memo. 1993-404 (neither wife nor many            
          other recipients of Broadway tickets from husband knew how                  
          expensive they were).                                                       





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