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reasonable cause, petitioners must show that they “exercised
ordinary business care and prudence and [were] nevertheless
unable to file the return within the prescribed time”. Sec.
301.6651-1(c)(1), Proced. & Admin. Regs. For illness or
incapacity to constitute reasonable cause, petitioners must show
that they were incapacitated to a degree that they could not file
their returns. Williams v. Commissioner, 16 T.C. 893, 905-906
(1951); see, e.g., Joseph v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2003-19
(“Illness or incapacity may constitute reasonable cause if the
taxpayer establishes that he was so ill that he was unable to
file.”).
Petitioners argue that their failure to file was due to
reasonable cause because petitioner was sick and because their
return preparer had a brain tumor. Petitioners have not
introduced any evidence to corroborate these allegations, nor
have they explained how long petitioner was sick, how serious his
illness was, why Mrs. Bhattacharyya was unable to fulfill
petitioners’ filing obligations, or why they were unable to find
another return preparer. We find that petitioners did not have
reasonable cause for their failure to file timely. Therefore, we
19(...continued)
the record shows that petitioners are liable for an increased
deficiency. See Howard v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2005-144.
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