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taxpayer’s burden includes the burden of substantiation.
Hradesky v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 87, 89-90 (1975), affd. per
curiam 540 F.2d 821 (5th Cir. 1976). Although section 7491(a)
may shift the burden of proof to the Commissioner in specified
circumstances, petitioner has not established that he meets the
requisites under section 7491(a)(1) and (2) for such a shift.
Section 151(b) provides a taxpayer with an exemption for a
spouse if the taxpayer and the spouse do not file a joint return,
and the spouse had no gross income and is not dependent on
another taxpayer during the calendar year in which the taxpayer's
tax year began. In this case, petitioner asserts that he is
entitled to an exemption for his wife for the 2000, 2002, and
2003 taxable years because there is no evidence that his wife had
gross income or was someone else’s dependent for any of those
years. Petitioner’s position distorts the relevant burdens of
proof and substantiation. As noted, because the relevant burdens
of proof and substantiation are on petitioner, no evidence on the
relevant issues means that petitioner loses, not that he wins.
Because there is no evidence regarding petitioner’s wife’s
dependency and income in 2000, 2002, and 2003, petitioner has not
shown entitlement to a dependency exemption for his wife in any
of those taxable years. See Brunner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
2004-187, affd. 142 Fed. Appx. 53 (3d Cir. 2005).
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