Romine v. Comm'r

25 T.C. 859, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 26, 1956
DocketDocket No. 49090
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 25 T.C. 859 (Romine v. Comm'r) 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
Romine v. Comm'r, 25 T.C. 859, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287 (tax 1956).

Opinion

OPINION.

Fisher, Judge:

Bespondent determined deficiencies in petitioner’s income taxes for 1945 and 1946 and further determined that such deficiencies were due in part to petitioner’s negligence, applying to such deficiencies the 5 per cent additions provided for in section 293 (a). Petitioner’s first contention is that assessment is barred for both of the years by the statute of limitations.

The statutory notice of deficiency for both years, 1945 and 1946, was sent on March 9, 1953. Petitioner, by appropriate pleading, raised the issue of limitations. Bespondent, by way of answer, affirmatively alleged the timely execution of waivers in respect to 1946 within 3 years of the filing of the return for that year, and in respect to 1945 within 5 years of the filing of the return for such year (under the provisions of section 275 (c)), extending the period of limitations for both years to June 30,1953.

Immediately following the opening statements of counsel at the trial herein, petitioner’s returns for 1945 and 1946, with copies of the alleged waivers for such years attached, were admitted into evidence. The pertinent portion of the transcript is as follows:

Me. Lambeet [counsel for petitioner]: If the Court please, Mr. Steele and I agreed the other day, I think, that the Photostatic copies he had of the 1945 and 1946 returns might be entered in evidence, * * *

*******
Mb. Steele: I am offering in evidence respondent’s exhibit A pursuant to the suggestion of petitioner’s counsel, the petitioner’s return for 1945, a Photostatic copy, and a Photostatic copy of his return for 1946, as respondent’s exhibit B.
Me. Lambeet: No objection.
The Coubt : They will be received, I understand, by agreement

Subsequent to hearing respondent moved to reopen the record for “the sole purpose of permitting [him] properly to identify and to offer in evidence separately the written agreements of petitioner and respondent extending the period for assessment of the deficiencies involved herein until June 30,1953.” In pertinent part, said motion was as follows:

Moves the Court for an order reopening the record in the above-entitled proceeding for the sole purpose of permitting respondent properly to identify and to offer in evidence separately the written agreements of petitioner and respondent extending the period for assessment of the deficiencies involved herein until June 30,1953.
*******
5. For the convenience of petitioner, and upon the suggestion of his counsel, at the commencement of petitioner’s case in chief herein respondent offered in evidence as Exhibits A and B photostatic copies of petitioner’s income tax returns for the years 1945 and 1946, said photostats for each year including photostatic copies of the consecutive consents (Forms 872) executed by petitioner and respondent for the extension of the assessment period to June 30,1953 * * *. Exhibits A and B were received as offered, by agreement, and with petitioner indicating no objection * * *
6. In a conference between respondent’s and petitioner’s counsel held several days before the instant trial, the photostatic copies of petitioner’s returns and of the consents (Forms 872) for the years 1945 and 1946 (associated and attached together precisely as they now are as respondent’s Exhibits A and B, respectively), were examined and agreed to by petitioner’s counsel * * *.
7. The fact that during the hearing apparently neither petitioner nor respondent considered that there was any remaining question concerning' the agreement between the parties to extend the assessment period with respect to the year 1945 — the only year relating to which the statute of limitations had been raised in the pleadings * * * [until amendment thereof subsequent to] is strongly indicated by the absence of any reference to said subject in the opening statement of either party, by petitioner’s failure to object to the composition or contents of Exhibits A and B and by petitioner’s failure to specify in the record the dates when his 1945 and 1946 returns were filed * * *
8. At the hearing respondent did not specifically refer to those portions of Exhibits A and B which consist of photostatic copies of the consents or agreements to extend the assessment period for the years 1945 and 1946; and he did not have petitioner identify said agreements by acknowledging his signature thereon;
9. In his original brief * * * and again in his reply brief * * * petitioner still argues the statute of limitations question; in fact, on page 21 of his reply brief petitioner suggests that said consent agreements extending the assessment period may have been added to Exhibits A and B after they had been received in evidence;
10. To correct any technical defect existing in the record with respect to whether the above-described consent agreements are properly in evidence as parts of Exhibits A and B, the Court is respectfully requested to order that the record be reopened for the sole purpose of permitting respondent properly to identify and separately to offer in evidence the respective consent agreements (Forms 872) which are now affixed to Exhibits A and B. Cf. Commissioner v. Estate of J. B. Williams et al (C. A. 4, 1954) 216 F. 2d 598, - A. F. T. R. -; Griffiths v. Commissioner (C. C. A. 7th 1931) 50 F. 2d 782; 10 A. F. T. R. 106.

By answer thereto petitioner resisted the granting of said motion, which we, nevertheless, granted to the extent indicated in the part of our order reading as follows:

Obdebed : That this case is re-opened for the limited purposes set out in paragraph “10.” of the respondent’s said motion, with the additional rights and reservations to petitioner made by the Court at said hearing and which will be found in the transcript of the hearing, * * *

Thereafter, at a separate hearing, respondent introduced into evidence the originals of the consent agreements purportedly executed by petitioner and Roy Barber, chief of the Internal Revenue Service field auditing branch for the State of Iowa, testified that such documents were taken from the files of the Service and that what purports to be petitioner’s signature appears thereon. Barber was not personally present at the time the instruments were allegedly signed by petitioner. Petitioner’s counsel objected to the admission of the consents and was overruled. Photostatic copies of duplicate-originals were then substituted therefor, being the instruments originally submitted into evidence in this proceeding attached as part of Exhibits A and B (petitioner’s returns for 1945 and 1946).

Petitioner’s counsel seems to suggest first that because the original transcript (pertinent portions of which have been set out, supra) does not indicate that the consents (the photostatic copies of the duplicate-originals) were physically attached to the returns when the latter were accepted in evidence, he is not sure they were so attached. The onus of such intimation clearly falls upon petitioner.

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Bluebook (online)
25 T.C. 859, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/romine-v-commr-tax-1956.