- 8 - Respondent’s primary position is that petitioners must include in gross income the amount of disability payments designated as taxable by STRS because they failed to prove a greater exclusion ratio or amount excludable from gross income.5 In addition, respondent argues that respondent should not be estopped from asserting deficiencies in petitioners’ 1999 and 2000 taxable years merely because respondent declined to make adjustments in prior years. In support of this claim, respondent points out that petitioners do not satisfy the requirements of laches, equitable estoppel, or collateral estoppel. II. Burden of Proof As a general rule, the Commissioner’s determination of a taxpayer’s liability is presumed correct, and the taxpayer bears the burden of proving that the determination is improper. Rule 142(a); Welch v. Helvering, 290 U.S. 111, 115 (1933). Although section 7491 may shift the burden to respondent in specified circumstances, petitioners here have not established that they meet the prerequisites under section 7491(a)(1) and (2) for such a shift. Rather, petitioners did not dispute that they bear the burden. 5 See supra note 4.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011