Pebley v. Commissioner

1981 T.C. Memo. 701, 43 T.C.M. 71, 1981 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 40
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 10, 1981
DocketDocket No. 16726-80.
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1981 T.C. Memo. 701 (Pebley 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
Pebley v. Commissioner, 1981 T.C. Memo. 701, 43 T.C.M. 71, 1981 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 40 (tax 1981).

Opinion

BILL W. AND AURIL M. PEBLEY, Petitioners v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Pebley v. Commissioner
Docket No. 16726-80.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1981-701; 1981 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 40; 43 T.C.M. (CCH) 71; T.C.M. (RIA) 81701;
December 10, 1981.

*40 Held: All grounds for redetermination set forth in the amended petition are either insufficient, as a matter of law, to form the basis for a redetermination of the deficiency set forth in the statutory notice or, if legally sufficient on their face, are rendered insufficient by the uncontroverted facts. Accordingly, respondent's motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 121 is granted.

Bill W. Pebley, pro se.
Michael C. Cohen, for the respondent.

IRWIN

MEMORANDUM OPINION

IRWIN, Judge: Respondent determined a deficiency of $ 10,762 in petitioners' Federal income tax for 1977. Petitioners*41 were residents of North Hollywood, California, at the time of the filing of the petition in this case.

This matter is before the Court on the petrial Motion of Respondent for Summary Judgment filed on May 21, 1981, pursuant to Rule 121, Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure.1 Petitioners filed an opposing memorandum and a hearing on respondent's motion was held in Los Angeles, California, on September 21, 1981. Petitioner and respondent's counsel appeared at the hearing and argued their respective positions.

Under Rule 121(b), a motion for summary judgment shall be granted if the "pleadings, answers to interrogatories, depositions, admissions, and any other acceptable materials, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that a decision may be rendered as a matter of law."

In the notice of deficiency dated June 10, 1980, respondent determined a deficiency in petitioners' Federal income taxes for the taxable year 1977 of $ 10,762. The adjustments to income were based on the*42 disallowance of a foreign income exclusion and a portion of petitioners' claimed employee business expenses deduction. In addition, their tax was recomputed using the maximum tax method in lieu of the income averaging method. Petitioners timely filed a petition with this Court for the redetermination of the deficiency and filed an amended petition on September 22, 1980. Respondent filed an answer to the amended petition on December 11, 1980.

It is respondent's position that all the grounds for redetermination set forth in petitioners' amended petition are either insufficient, as a matter of law, to form the basis for a redetermination of the deficiency set forth in the statutory notice or, if legally sufficient on their face, are rendered insufficient by the uncontroverted facts.

Rule 34(b) provides, in relevant part, that the petition shall contain:

(4) Clear and concise assignments of each and every error which the petitioner alleges to have been committed by the Commissioner in the determination of the deficiency or liability. The assignments of error shall include issues in respect of which the burden of proof is on the Commissioner. Any issue not raised in the assignments*43 of error shall be deemed to be conceded. * * *

(5) Clear and concise lettered statements of the facts on which petitioner bases the assignments of error, except with respect to those assignments of error as to which the burden of proof is on the Commissioner.

Petitioners make no reference to the specific adjustments made by respondent in the notice of deficiency. The only allusion to these issues made in the amended petition consists of the following statements:

5. The facts upon which Petitioner relies, as the basis for his case are as follows:

D. Petitioner denies each and every element of assessment and penalty not herein admitted, qualified, or denied, and puts the I.R.S. to its strict proof thereof.

K. Petitioner does not limit his grounds to the points raised in this petition, but asserts that he reserves the right to use any and all legal points and authorities needed in his behalf.

No such reservation can act to nullify the requirements of the rules of this Court. Goldsmith v. Commissioner, 31 T.C. 56, 63-64 (1958). We have held that "[o]ur rules require full--rather than incomplete, fragmentary, or vague--pleadings by the parties.*44 " Klein v. Commissioner, 45 T.C. 308, 311 (1965). These vague references are insufficient to raise or preserve petitioners' right to raise the substantive issues inherent in the notice of deficiency (i.e., the foreign income exclusion, the deductibility of business expenses, and petitioners' entitlement to the income averaging method of compouting their taxes). See Factor v. Commissioner,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1981 T.C. Memo. 701, 43 T.C.M. 71, 1981 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pebley-v-commissioner-tax-1981.