- 7 - 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 treatmentPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011