- 5 - for recovery if there is a bona fide claim for recoupment and a substantial possibility that the claim will be decided in the taxpayer’s favor. Ramsay Scarlett & Co. v. Commissioner, 61 T.C. 795, 811 (1974), affd. 521 F.2d 786 (4th Cir. 1975). 1. Claimed Destruction of Home and Illegal Foreclosure Petitioners assign error to respondent’s disallowance of $467,900 of casualty and theft losses that were included among the $480,776 total itemized deductions that petitioners claimed on their 2001 Federal income tax return.3 Petitioners contend that the disputed $467,900 of casualty and theft losses arose, in undifferentiated fashion, from the burning of their house in 1994 and from an illegal foreclosure action in 2001, apparently with respect to the property where the destroyed house formerly stood. Petitioners contend that although their house was destroyed in 1994, they claimed the casualty loss in 2001 because it was then that litigation against an insurance company to recover the value of the home proved unsuccessful. The record is far from clear about the circumstances of the alleged destruction of petitioners’ house and the litigation to 3 Petitioners have not otherwise assigned error to respondent’s disallowance of the itemized deductions that they claimed for 2001, 2002, and 2003, other than the $467,900 of casualty and theft losses claimed on their 2001 Federal income tax return. We deem petitioners to have conceded respondent’s determinations with respect to all of their itemized deductions other than the $467,900 item. In any event, petitioners have failed to substantiate any of these itemized deductions.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: March 27, 2008