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item; (2) petitioner’s estimate of the fair market value of each
item immediately prior to the purported casualty; (3) copies of
Internet catalog and web pages reflecting items petitioner claims
to have lost in the purported casualty that were collected by
petitioner in anticipation of litigation; and (4) petitioner’s
self-serving testimony. This Court is not bound to accept a
taxpayer’s unverified and self-serving testimony. Blodgett v.
Commissioner, 394 F.3d 1030, 1036 (8th Cir. 2005), affg. T.C.
Memo. 2003-212; Shea v. Commissioner, 112 T.C. 183, 189 (1999).
Because petitioner has failed to corroborate her testimony or
provide any substantiation to support her claimed amount of
casualty loss, we find that we cannot estimate any amounts of
petitioner’s deductions under the Cohan rule, and we sustain
respondent’s disallowance of petitioner’s claimed casualty loss
deduction in the amount of $19,068.
We have considered all of the other arguments made by the
parties, and, to the extent that we have not specifically
addressed them, we conclude they are without merit.
Reviewed and adopted as the report of the Small Tax Case
Division.
Decision will be entered
for respondent.
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