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increases in deficiency, and affirmative defenses, pleaded in the
answer, it shall be upon the respondent.5
In Weimerskirch v. Commissioner, supra at 362, the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (to which an appeal of
this matter would lie) held that the Commissioner’s determination
of a deficiency which allegedly resulted from unreported income
could not be upheld in absence of any substantive evidence
linking the taxpayer to the alleged income-producing activity.
The rule in Weimerskirch does not apply to this case. We
have consistently held that the taxpayer bears the burden of
proof with regard to claimed losses or deductions. See Time Ins.
Co. v. Commissioner, 86 T.C. 298, 313-314 (1986); Chaum v.
Commissioner, 69 T.C. 156, 163-164 (1977). Even if the
deficiencies at issue were assumed to stem from allegedly
unreported income, this case would still not be analogous to
Weimerskirch. In Weimerskirch, the Commissioner failed to
introduce any evidence connecting the taxpayer with the activity
which allegedly produced the unreported income. In the matter
before us, petitioners’ indivdual income tax returns and Gold
Coast’s partnership returns all reveal a relationship between
petitioners and the income-producing activity at issue. We are
therefore not presented with a situation in which respondent
5 Petitioners do not allege, and we do not find, that sec.
7491(a) applies to this dispute.
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