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deposited revenues from one or more of his businesses, (b) the
respective balances in the joint checking account on February 16
and March 16, 1999, were $13,808.90 and $17,746.87, and
(c) petitioner generally was to pay certain household bills and
bills for certain personal items from the joint checking
account.24 Finally, unlike Levy, in the instant case, at least
during 1999 until around December of that year, petitioner had,
or had access to, two major credit cards, Visa and American
Express.
Having found petitioner’s reliance on Levy with respect to
the knowledge or reason to know element to be misplaced, we turn
now to whether petitioner has carried her burden of establishing
that that element is present here. Petitioner contends:
at the time the return [for 1998] was presented to her
[petitioner] for her signature, the Krasner family was
living a life, which many would agree to be the Ameri-
can dream.[25] The Intervenor’s [Mr. Krasner’s] prac-
tice was, during 1998 and 1999, from a financial per-
spective, enjoying its most successful years.
Intervenor, for 1999 alone, had increased his adjusted
gross income over that of 1998 by over $170,000.00,
which, calculated on a monthly average basis alone
would have provided for the payment in full of the
24In instances where petitioner did not always have enough
money in the joint checking account to pay all the household
bills that she was to pay, Mr. Krasner paid certain household
bills (e.g., mortgage loan payments) from one or both of Mr.
Krasner’s business accounts.
25In fact, petitioner claims on brief that “the Krasner
family’s lifestyle was arguably in the upper income sphere of
American families”. However, petitioner claimed in petitioner’s
November 7, 2003 letter to respondent: “Prior to the tax return
at issue, Janet had enjoyed a life of middle class comfort”.
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