- 18 - not rely on petitioner’s testimony to establish his position with respect to any of the expenses that he is claiming in this case. Claimed Unreimbursed Employee Expenses A taxpayer is entitled to deduct under section 162(a) unreimbursed employee expenses only to the extent that the taxpayer demonstrates that such taxpayer could not have been reimbursed for such expenses by such taxpayer’s employer. Podems v. Commissioner, 24 T.C. 21, 23 (1955).11 Petitioner contends that the unreimbursed employee expenses at issue could not have been reimbursed because he incurred them during travel freezes in 2001 and no company vice president approved them. Respondent disagrees. We have found that petitioner did not submit any requests for reimbursement of employee expenses that he paid during certain unidentified travel freezes in the year at issue and that he made no attempt to obtain the approval of a vice president authorizing reimbursement of any such expenses. On the instant record, we find that petitioner has failed to carry his burden of showing that a company vice president would not have approved any employee expenses which he paid during such travel freezes and for which he did not request reimbursement. On that record, we further find that petitioner has failed to carry his burden of establishing that he could not have been reimbursed by his 11See also Putnam v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1998-285; Marshall v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-65.Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011