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Citing Brenner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2004-202,
petitioner contends that respondent routinely allows more than 50
percent of a taxpayer’s gross compensation for business expenses
for a taxpayer in petitioner’s business and location. We
disagree. Like petitioner, the taxpayer in Brenner v.
Commissioner, supra, was in the insurance business and lived in
Ormond Beach, Florida, when he filed his petition. The
Commissioner used the bank deposits method to reconstruct his
income. The Commissioner allowed the taxpayer to deduct
estimated insurance business expenses equal to 54.77 percent of
his commissions based on the Statistics of Labor Bulletin, Sole
Proprietorship Returns, 1994, Table 2.--Nonfarm Sole
Proprietorships: Income Statements, by Selected Groups: Insurance
agents and brokers (statistics for insurance agents).
The Commissioner’s allowance of business expenses based on
Bureau of Labor Statistics figures in Brenner does not establish
that respondent routinely allows a business deduction based on
statistics or industry averages or that respondent is required to
use them. Our responsibility as a Court is to apply the law to
the facts of the case before us; how the Commissioner treated
other taxpayers is generally irrelevant in making that
determination, Davis v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 1014, 1022 (1976);
Teichgraeber v. Commissioner, 64 T.C. 453, 456 (1975), absent
proof that a taxpayer has been singled out for adverse treatment
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