Suarez v. Commissioner

61 T.C. No. 87, 61 T.C. 841, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMarch 26, 1974
DocketDocket No. 4196-67
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 61 T.C. No. 87 (Suarez 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
Suarez v. Commissioner, 61 T.C. No. 87, 61 T.C. 841, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135 (tax 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

Hott, Judge:

Petitioners resided in Miami, Fla., when they filed their petition herein. They filed joint Federal income tax returns for 1963 and 1964, in which they reported very substantial gross income from Efrain’s medical practice and claimed numerous expenses and deductions. Since Zenaida Suarez is a party hereto merely because she joined in these returns, Efrain will sometimes hereinafter be referred to as the petitioner. The respondent has determined the following deficiencies in the petitioners’ income tax and has imposed the following penalties:

Penalty
TYE Deficiency (sec. 666S(.a)) [1]
Dec. 31, 1963_ $354, 959. 96 $17, 748. 00
Dec. 31, 1964_ 358, 649. 62 17, 932. 48

In a statement attached to the statutory notice of deficiency respondent explained that it had been determined that the gross receipts from petitioner’s business totaled $528,888.58 in 1963 and $609,877.67 in 1964 in lieu of $107,938 in 1963 and $129,064 in 1964, as reported on petitioners’ returns. It was also determined that part of the underpayment of tax for the 2 taxable years was due to negligence or intentional disregard of rules and regulations, giving rise to the assertion of the 5-percent addition to tax provided by section 6653(a) in -each of the taxable years involved. Ho other adjustments were made by the statutory notice, and the deficiencies and penalties determined resulted entirely from the increased gross receipts described above.

Only a brief summary of the pertinent facts will be made herein in light of our earlier opinion in this case. The Findings of Fact and Opinion appearing in Efrain T. Suarez, 58 T.C. 792 (1972), are incorporated herein by this reference.

In November 1963, the Miami Police Division and the State Attorney’s Office of Dade County, Fla., suspecting that illegal abortions were being performed at a clinic operated by petitioner, determined to develop evidence for prosecution of those at the clinic found to be involved in such illegal acts. There followed a 4- to 6-week investigation, culminating in detailed planning for a raid at the premises of the clinic on January 3,1964.

To implement the planned raid two policewomen (Barbara Williams and Myrtle Ellison) gained entrance to the clinic, pursuant to a prearranged appointment, on the pretext of securing the abortion of a pregnancy feigned by Barbara. When the stage was set by the payment of the prescribed fee (in bills of recorded seriality) and the initiation of the preliminary arrangements for Barbara’s purported operation, Myrtle excused herself for breakfast. Once outside the clinic she summoned other police officers and agents of the State Attorney’s Office, who were awaiting her signal, and informed them that the money had changed hands and the petitioner was preparing to attempt the “arranged” abortion on Barbara.

The officers entered the public waiting room and knocked on the closed inner door to the examining rooms, which had been relocked after Myrtle’s exit. After announcing their identities, but not their purpose, and receiving no reply, they knocked again and immediately proceeded to 'break the door down. In spite of weeks of preparation for the raid, no warrants were obtained either for arrests or for a search of the clinic.

The petitioner and several other employees were then arrested and the premises searched. In the course of the search petitioner’s daily records, containing details of the clinic’s business in 1963, were discovered and seized.

The seized records and evidence obtained in the raid were the basis for an information returned against petitioner for violation of Florida statutes prohibiting abortions. After trial in which this same evidence was used, petitioner was convicted in 1965, but later following affirmation of the conviction in the Florida courts and denial of a writ of certiorari by the United States Supreme Court, he was released on a writ of habeas corpus by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1969. That court found that the forced entry at the clinic was illegal and the evidence upon which the conviction was based was obtained as a result of an unlawful search and seizure violative of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. The judgment of conviction was vacated and petitioner set free. He was never retried in the Florida courts.

Shortly after the raid the daily records seized from the clinic were made available by the Miami law enforcement officials, who had conducted it, to agents of the respondent. The deficiency determined by respondent for 1963 was based solely on an analysis of these records and leads obtained therefrom. Since no records were available for 1964, respondent based the deficiency asserted for that year on projections he made from the 1963 records seized in the raid. Respondent made no independent investigation, audit, or examination whatever to determine petitioners’ income or the correctness of their returns for either year before us and has stipulated that his determination was based solely on the records seized in the 1964 clinic raid and leads derived therefrom.

The petitioners filed several motions in advance of trial in which they alleged that the respondent based his determination upon evidence which was obtained from them in violation of their rights under the United States Constitution. Hearings were held thereon, evidence was submitted, arguments were made, and briefs filed. In an opinion filed on August 10, 1972, and published at 58 T.C. 792, we held that fourth amendment proscriptions applied in a civil tax case.2 On the record before us we reached the same conclusion as that reached by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in the habeas corpus proceeding before it in 1969. We concluded that the forced entry, raid, and seizure of evidence without warrants in 1964 were illegal and in violation of petitioner’s fourth amendment rights. We then pointed out that in addition to suppression of the tainted evidence in this case, in which the burden of proof rests upon the petitioner to show error in respondent’s determination, further action should be taken to effect a disincentive to the use of constitutionally tainted evidence and also to protect judicial integrity.3 We finally concluded therefore that the presumption of correctness normally attached to respondent’s determinations of deficiencies was destroyed and that the burden of producing and going forward with the proof in this case shifted to the respondent, who had the duty to present independent, untainted evidence to sustain his asserted deficiencies.

On August 16,1972, pursuant to the above-mentioned prior opinion herein, we ordered:

(1) That the burden of producing and going forward with the proof is shifted to the respondent to establish the existence of a deficiency with evidence which is not the fruit of an illegal search and seizure; and
(2) That the respondent shall have leave to file, within 30 days of the date of this order, a further amended answer containing a statement of any facts upon which he will rely when the trial resumes to sustain his asserted deficiency.

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Suarez v. Commissioner
61 T.C. No. 87 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
61 T.C. No. 87, 61 T.C. 841, 1974 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suarez-v-commissioner-tax-1974.