- 13 - taxpayer from filing his or her return. See, e.g., Hobson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-272 (reasonable cause was found where taxpayers cared for a seriously ill child and an invalid parent and taxpayer husband’s job forced taxpayers to live apart for part of the year); Tabbi v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-463 (reasonable cause was found where taxpayers’ son had heart surgery and taxpayers spent 4 months continuously in the hospital with him, and taxpayers filed their return 2 months after their son’s death). In contrast, a taxpayer generally does not have reasonable cause for his or her failure to timely file a return where the taxpayer’s illness does not prevent the taxpayer from filing his or her return. See, e.g., Watts v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1999-416 (reasonable cause was not found where, although taxpayer’s mother and daughter were both ill and taxpayer frequently took them to see doctors, taxpayer also performed extensive architectural services in taxpayer’s business); Wright v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-224 (reasonable cause was not found where the taxpayer had capacity to attend to matters other than filing tax returns despite his mother’s traumatic disappearance and death and the taxpayer’s failure to file returns continued beyond the duration of these events), affd. without published opinion 173 F.3d 848 (2d Cir. 1999). Although the Court sympathizes with Ms. Felton for the loss of her mother, petitioner clearly filed its return beyond the duration of the illness and incapacity, and, in the instant case,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011