- 10 -
THROUGH HER. The check for these funds was issued
jointly to Petitioner AND Mr. Ober; Petitioner did not
have exclusive control of these funds at any time.
Further, Petitioner relied upon reasonable sources
including the Attorney General’s Office and the Comp-
troller, both of the State of Maryland, and followed
their instructions regarding how to “pass through”
these funds to Mr. Ober and not be responsible for
taxes on the non-income (reference Exhibit 6-P). For
all the above reasons, these funds cannot be considered
as income and must be excluded from inclusion in the
Petitioner’s Gross Income figure for 1994. * * *
[Reproduced literally.]
On the record before us, we find that petitioner has failed
to carry her burden of showing that the $170,000 settlement was
paid jointly to petitioner and Mr. Ober.6 In any event, the
6On the record before us, we further find that petitioner
has failed to carry her burden of showing that Exhibit 6-P to
which petitioner refers on brief and which is part of the record
in this case contained “instructions regarding how to ‘pass
through’ these funds to Mr. Ober and not be responsible for taxes
on the non-income”. The exhibit in question is the Maryland
Attorney General’s April 26, 1994 letter to Mr. Ober. That
letter stated in pertinent part:
This is to confirm our conversation of 4/26/94
regarding your proposal to allow Mrs. Messina to claim
a higher number of exemptions on her W-4 Form in order
to substantially reduce the projected withholding of
$60,136.
As we discussed, I spoke to Ellen Coffin of the
[Maryland] Comptroller’s Office who stated that a State
employee may claim more exemptions than they actually
have. The Comptroller’s Office does not make an in-
quiry or judge the number of exemptions but does as a
matter of policy, forward on a quarterly basis, copies
of all W-4s that reflect over 10 exemptions to the
I.R.S. Ms. Coffin further stated that the employee is
then subject to an inquiry from the I.R.S. that re-
quests that the employee state the basis for claiming
these exemptions on their W-4.
(continued...)
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