- 15 - carrying on any trade or business”. Sec. 162(a); Deputy v. duPont, 308 U.S. 488, 495 (1940). Respondent did not challenge the validity of petitioners’ claimed Schedule C expenses as ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred for Mr. Nwankwo’s trucking business but rather disallowed the expenses on the grounds that petitioners failed to provide substantiation that these expenses were actually paid or incurred in the taxable years, and in the amounts, that they were claimed. With respect to the legal and professional fees, the record contains evidence of two citations incurred by Mr. Nwankwo in 2002 as shown on payroll deduction forms provided by his employer. The amounts of these citations were $105 and $1,105, respectively. However, upon closer scrutiny of this evidence, we find only one of the photocopied receipts provided by petitioner to be legitimate,3 and accordingly, conclude that petitioner is entitled to a deduction of $105. Petitioner then testified that he incurred attorney’s fees of $400 associated with this 3The two photocopies provided are identical insofar as they have the same claim accident number, date, and location information. They appear to have been written by the same person. There are two marked differences between the documents: the document listing an amount of $105 appears to be a photocopy, whereas the document showing $1,105 appears, at least on first blush, to be an original. However, upon closer inspection, we find that an extra “1” was likely added to the $105 copy and then re-copied, whereupon the “original” $105 copy was either distressed or re-faxed to give the appearance of two separate receipts.Page: Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Next
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