- 14 -
Memo. 1998-33; see also Malinowski v. Commissioner, 71 T.C. 1120,
1125 (1979).
Petitioners did not introduce any documents and offered only
vague testimony regarding these claimed expenses. Many of the
claimed travel expenses involved Mr. Vigil’s driving in his
personal automobile to Indian reservations in various States. He
traveled with family; namely, Mrs. Vigil and one or more of their
adult children. Petitioners testified that they maintained a
list of locations where Mr. Vigil ministered and of the mileage
driven and that they used credit cards for business expenses and
kept the receipts. They further explained that, at the time the
2001 return was prepared in 2004, they provided those documents
to their C.P.A. but did not retain copies.
Petitioners’ C.P.A. at the time of the preparation of the
Form 4361 and the audit of their 1994 tax return developed a drug
problem and later died. Their C.P.A.’s wife took over the
accounting business and prepared petitioners’ 2001 return in
2004. However, petitioners testified credibly that she too has
developed a drug habit, that they have been unable to retrieve
their documents from her, and that even the sheriff was unable to
serve her with a subpoena to appear and testify at trial.
Although they tried, petitioners were also unable to retrieve
documents from their credit card companies to reconstruct or
substantiate their 2001 expenses.
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