Levine v. Commissioner

1987 T.C. Memo. 320, 53 T.C.M. 1258, 1987 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 320
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 25, 1987
DocketDocket No. 15626-83.
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1987 T.C. Memo. 320 (Levine v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Levine v. Commissioner, 1987 T.C. Memo. 320, 53 T.C.M. 1258, 1987 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 320 (tax 1987).

Opinion

BARRY P. LEVINE, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Levine v. Commissioner
Docket No. 15626-83.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1987-320; 1987 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 320; 53 T.C.M. (CCH) 1258; T.C.M. (RIA) 87320;
June 25, 1987.
*320 Barry P. Levine, pro se.
Osmun R. Latrobe, for the respondent.

SCOTT

MEMORANDUM FINDINGS OF FACT AND OPINION

SCOTT, Judge: Respondent determined deficiencies in petitioner's income taxes for the calendar years 1979 and 1980 in the amounts of $256,948.32 and $81,945.69, respectively, and additions to tax for fraud under section 6653(b) 1 for those years in the respective amounts of $128,474.16 and $40,972.85. One issue was conceded by respondent and, although raised in the petition, other issues were not in fact contested by petitioner at the trial, leaving for our decision as contested issues the following: 2

1. What amount of income received by petitioner from illegal sale of drugs in the taxable years 1979 and 1980 was not reported by him on his Federal income tax returns for those years; and

2. whether any part of the deficiency in tax due from petitioner for each of the taxable years 1979 and 1980 was due to fraud within the meaning of section 6653(b).

*321 FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly. Petitioner, Barry P. Levine, was a resident of Lompoc, California, at the time of the filing of his petition in this case. For the taxable year 1979 petitioner filed a joint Federal income tax return with his wife, and for the calendar year 1980 filed a return as a married individual filing separately. During the years 1979 and 1980 and for some years prior thereto, petitioner was the sole owner of a subchapter S corporation, Barry Discount Pharmacy, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation. This corporation owned and operated two retail pharmacies in Oklahoma City. Petitioner was a licensed pharmacist and a member of the Oklahoma Pharmaceutical Association. He was active in the work of that association and in the Drug Abuse Council of that association.

Beginning in late 1978, petitioner conspired with several other individuals to illegally distribute controlled substances, Citra Forte and Valium. Petitioner would buy through his pharmacies large quantities of these drugs from reputable wholesale drug supply firms. The firms from which petitioner obtained the Citra Forte and Valium, which he illegally*322 sold, were McKesson and Robbins Drug Co., Fox-Vliet Drug Co., and Amfac Drug Supply Co. Petitioner issued checks from his pharmacies in payment for his purchases of Citra Forte and Valium which he illegally sold. The records show that petitioner paid in the vicinity of $7.80 a pint for Citra Forte and, after discount, approximately $69 a bottle of 500 tablets for Valium. There were two individuals to whom petitioner sold the Citra Forte and Valium. The sales were typically in caseload quantities of four, six or occasionally twelve cases of Citra Forte at a time and one or more cases of Valium at a time. A case consisted of twelve pint bottles of Citra Forte or twelve bottles of 500 tablets each of Valium. Petitioner received $25 per pint bottle for Citra Forte in his illegal sales, and $125 per bottle for his illegally sold Valium. The two individuals to whom petitioner sold these drugs then sold them on the street at an increased price. Petitioner's illegal sales of controlled drugs was carried on throughout the entire year 1979 and through March of 1980. Occasionally there would be a fluctuation in the amount of the drugs he sold when he became concerned of possible suspicion*323 of his activities by law enforcement agencies.

In February of 1980, one of petitioner's co-conspirators was arrested for an unrelated narcotics violation. While he was being questioned by agents of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Control and an assistant Oklahoma County District Attorney, he told of his activities with respect to the purchase of Citra Forte and Valium from petitioner and told the agents of another person to whom petitioner was illegally selling these drugs. On March 31, 1980, acting under the authority of a judicially issued administrative inspection warrant, agents of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Control and of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency began simultaneous inventory reviews of the two pharmacies owned and operated by petitioner. These inventory reviews consisted of thorough audits of the pharmacy's prescription records, and inventories of drugs and purchases. The agents in the audit added to the amount of physical inventory at the beginning of the period the purchases made during the period and reduced the amount by the prescription disbursements and the inventory of drugs on hand at the date of the audit.*324 The result was a reflection of shortages in the inventory on the audit date. These shortages resulted because of the disbursement of drugs without prescriptions. Since the agents were unable to get an accurate beginning inventory, they used a beginning inventory of zero in the audit they conducted on March 31, 1980, in order to give petitioner the benefit of all doubt as to the unaccounted-for quantity. The beginning inventory date for the audit was January 1, 1979, as to Barry's Discount Pharmacy, and June 21, 1979, for Barry's Uni-Med Pharmacy, the two pharmacies operated by petitioner's corporation. The June 21, 1979, date for the Barry's Uni-Med Pharmacy was used because a fire had occurred on the premises of that pharmacy on June 21, 1979, and it was therefore difficult to reconstruct records before that date. The result of these audits relating to the Citra Forte and Valium indicated the following:

DrugBarry's DiscountUni-Med

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Bluebook (online)
1987 T.C. Memo. 320, 53 T.C.M. 1258, 1987 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/levine-v-commissioner-tax-1987.