-10- insurance business during the years at issue. In fact, petitioner’s gross receipts for 1999 and 2000 were the two highest totals for all years from 1997 through 2002. Selective incapacity only with respect to income tax returns is not sufficient to prove reasonable cause. Wright v. Commissioner, supra. We find petitioner’s illnesses did not incapacitate him so severely that he was unable to conduct his business affairs during the years at issue. We find, therefore, that petitioner’s illnesses also did not render him unable to timely file his returns for the years at issue. Moreover, petitioner’s failure to timely file continued for years beyond the due date of the returns. Petitioner’s drug addiction and rehabilitation admittedly affected him during a portion of 1999, particularly the time he spent in drug rehabilitation, and likely for some time before he entered drug rehabilitation as well. The returns remained unfiled for almost 5 years from when petitioner began to assemble this information by fall 1999. See Ramirez v. Commissioner, supra; Wright v. Commissioner, supra. We find that petitioner’s failure to file continued well beyond the duration of his illnesses or incapacity. See Black v. Commissioner, supra. Accordingly, petitioner’s illnesses did not constitute reasonable cause for his failure to timely file a return. In sum, petitioner has not shown that his failure to timely file income tax returns for the years at issue was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect. Thus, we find thatPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
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