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of decedent’s estate reports that decedent’s estate was entitled
to deduct a $6,000 expense for cleaning out “Decedent’s home”.
We also find nothing credible in the record to persuade us
that decedent agreed to pay monthly installments of rent for 2000
in amounts other than the $850 shown in the 2000 lease agreement,
or that decedent was liable in 2000 for more than $850 per month.
Petitioner invites the Court to find that there was an oral
agreement modifying the 2000 lease agreement and to find that
decedent paid $4,000 of rent for the first quarter of 2000 by
means of the February 7, 2000, check. We decline to make either
finding. First, decedent’s estate admitted on the estate tax
return that it considered $8,500 of rent to be owing to Funny
Hats. Decedent died in February 2000, and this $8,500
corresponds to the product of the remaining 10 months in that
year multiplied by the $850-per-month rate shown in the 2000
lease agreement. The $850-per-month rate is also consistent with
each of the rates of rent set forth in the lease agreements for
prior years, although petitioner now asks the Court to find that
decedent’s rent for years after 1996 actually reflected
decedent’s shared use of the residence with David Disbrow and
others.
Second, even if we were to assume arguendo that the parties
to the 2000 lease agreement could modify that agreement orally,
an assumption that we make with much reservation, the record does
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