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Nevertheless, describing the executor’s duty to file the return
as an “unambiguous, precisely defined duty”, the Court cautioned
that the executor’s expectation that the attorney, as his agent,
would attend to the matter “does not relieve the principal of his
duty to comply with the statute.” Id. The Court described as
among those very narrow circumstances in which an executor may be
excused from discharging his duty to ascertain and meet the
filing deadline the circumstance in which an executor has relied
on the erroneous advice of counsel concerning a question of law;
e.g., “when a taxpayer shows that he reasonably relied on the
advice of an accountant or attorney that it was unnecessary to
file a return, even when such advice turned out to have been
mistaken.” Id.
B. Analysis
We start our analysis with two unassailable facts: Messrs.
Roisen and Helman were obligated to file the estate tax return no
later than December 10, 2000, and they failed in that obligation.
Petitioner may escape an addition to tax on account of that
failure if he can show that they had reasonable cause for the
failure because they reasonably relied on the advice of Mr.
Ledley that they had no such obligation. Petitioner, however,
has failed to make that showing. Indeed, petitioner has failed
to show that, on December 10, 2000, Messrs. Roisen and Helman
were aware that the last day for filing the estate tax return was
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