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totaling $620,000, has a value between $850,000 and $950,000.
Petitioner also testified that she placed the New York property
on the market for $82,000 during the summer and fall of 2001, but
she did not receive any firm offers. Petitioner claims that her
net worth is approximately $50,000.
Petitioner did not produce bank records, property tax
assessments, real estate appraisals, the listing agreement for
the New York property, or any other evidence to support her
testimony. Neither Mr. Sturges nor any representative from Paine
Webber or Cisco testified at the trial. The only record from
Paine Webber is a one-page statement for August 2001 that shows
petitioner and Mr. Sturges having an account with a value of
$13,439.34. Petitioner offered no evidence other than her own
testimony that (1) there is only $15,000 remaining in the
charitable remainder trust, (2) monthly expenses exceed Mr.
Sturges’s monthly income by $3,500, (3) petitioner and Mr.
Sturges’s residence has a value of less than $950,000, (4) the
unencumbered New York house has a value of less than $82,000, and
(4) the land in Colorado has a value of $20,000. In the absence
of corroborating evidence, we are not required to accept, and do
not accept, petitioner’s self-serving testimony. See Tokarski v.
Commissioner, 87 T.C. 74, 77 (1986).
Consequently, we conclude that petitioner has failed to
carry her burden of proving that requiring her to pay the
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