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Petitioner testified that Joe Stevens appraised the bag at
$1,900. Petitioner testified that he donated the bag to the
DMNH, and Ms. Herold could confirm this. Petitioner did not call
Mr. Stevens or Ms. Herold as a witness. We infer that their
testimony would not have been favorable to petitioner. See
Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1158, 1165
(1946), affd. 162 F.2d 513 (10th Cir. 1947).
To the extent that petitioner relies on his own testimony to
establish that he donated the bag, we found petitioner’s
testimony to be conclusory and contradictory of the documentary
evidence. Petitioner stated the value of the bag to be $101-
$500--far less than the $960 he claimed. Petitioner wrote that
he might donate the bag if it would be displayed (suggesting he
would not donate the bag if it was not displayed), and petitioner
was informed that the bag would not be displayed. Furthermore,
Ms. Herold’s memorandum dated May 24, 1999, makes clear that
petitioner had not yet donated the bag.
The Court is not required to accept petitioner’s
unsubstantiated testimony. See Wood v. Commissioner, 338 F.2d
602, 605 (9th Cir. 1964), affg. 41 T.C. 593 (1964). Under the
circumstances presented here, we are not required to, and
generally do not, rely on petitioner’s testimony to sustain his
burden of establishing error in respondent’s determinations. See
Lerch v. Commissioner, 877 F.2d 624, 631-632 (7th Cir. 1989),
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Last modified: May 25, 2011