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However, petitioners’ accountants were hired by petitioners to
perform only a compilation of their accounts and prepare their
tax returns. The evidence does not show that the accountants
could have discerned the nature of the extensive cash dealings by
petitioners if the additional documents had been reviewed.
Although petitioner’s accountants had warned him that checks must
be made payable to the actual recipients of the money, petitioner
never informed them of his cash transactions, which were
obviously designed to circumvent their advice to him. The first
time the accountants were made aware of any cash dealings was
when approached by IRS agents investigating petitioners for
criminal tax violations.
A taxpayer is not entitled to shift responsibility for
inaccurate returns onto his return preparer where the preparer is
not provided with complete and accurate information regarding the
taxpayer’s income and expenses. See Korecky v. Commissioner, 781
F.2d 1566, 1569 (11th Cir. 1986), affg. per curiam T.C. Memo.
1985-63; Merritt v. Commissioner, 301 F.2d 484, 487 (5th Cir.
1962), affg. T.C. Memo. 1959-172. The responsibility of filing
accurate returns remains principally with the taxpayer,
especially where the taxpayer has taken an active and controlling
role regarding the information that is used for the preparation
of the returns. See Medlin v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2003-224,
affd. 138 Fed. Appx. 298 (11th Cir. 2005). Petitioners cannot
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