TAX COURT OPINION

Case: Kevin I. Brisco
Docket Number: 4922-07S
Judge: Colvin
Opinion Type: bench
Filed: 07/02/2008
Pages: 7

UNITED STATES TAX 'COURT WASHINGTON, D .C . 201 7 KEVIN I . BRISCO, Petitioner, v . COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE , Respondent . Docket No . 4922-07 S O R D E R Pursuant to Rule 152(b), Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, it i s ORDERED that the Clerk of the Coui't shall transmit herewith to petitioner and to respondent a copy of the pages of the transcript of the trial of the above c se before Judge Diane L . Kroupa at Memphis, Tennessee on June 1 , 2008, containing her oral findings of fact and opinion rendered at the conclusion of trial . In accordance with the oral findings of fact and opinion, decision will be entered under Rule 15E, . (Signed) Diane L. Kroupa Judge Dated : Washington, D .C . July 2, 2008 I SERVED iUL - 3 20Oa 2 1 Bench Opinion by Judge Diane :L . Kroupa June 10, 200 8 2 Brisco v . Commissione r Docket No . 4922-07 S 3 4 THE COURT : The Court has decided to render oral findings of fact and opinion in this case, and 5 the following represents the Court's oral findings o f 6 fact and opinion . These oral findings of fact an d 7 opinion shall not be relied upon as precedent in any 8 other case . 9 This bench opinion is made pursuant to the 10 authority granted by section 117459(b) of the Internal 11 Revenue Code and Rule 152 of I,the Tax Court Rules of 12 Practice and Procedure . Thisi proceeding for wa s 13 conducted as a Small Tax Case!, pursuant to section 7463 14 and Rules 170 through 175 . 15 All section references are to the Internal 16 Revenue Code for the year 2004, which shall b e 17 referred to as the "year at issue," and all rule 18 references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and 19 Procedure . 20 Kevin Brisco appear eed pro se on his ow n 21 behalf, and Terra-Lynn Zentar4 appeared on behalf o f 22 Respondent . 23 FINDINGS OF FACT 24 Certain facts have been stipulated . The 25 stipulation of facts filed by : the parties, with Heritage Reporting Corporatio n (202) 628-4888 3 1 accompanying exhibits , is incorporated by thi s 2 reference . Petitioner resided in Tennessee at the 3 time he filed the petition in this case . 4 Because petitionerlldid not timely file a 5 return for 2004, respondent ssued petitioner a 6 statutory notice of deficiency on December 4, 2006 . 7 Thereafter , petitioner submitted a return for 200 4 8 using head of household filing status and claiming two 9 of his sons , J .B . and P .B ., as dependents . 10 Petitioner and hisl,ex -wife were separated in 11 2004 and ultimately became divorced in 2006 . During 12 2004, the year at issue, petitioner and his ex-wif e 13 maintained se2arate households . They have fou r 14 children together, and they agreed to each claim two 15 of the children . Petitioner i now concedes that he i s 16 not entitled to claim P .B . .a$ a dependent, because 17 P .B . did not reside with petitioner for more than one- 18 half of the year 2004 . 19 Respondent made the following adjustments i n 20 the deficiency notice . First, respondent denied 21 petitioner' s claimed depende cy exemptions for P .B . 22 and J . B . Second, respondent adjusted petitioner's 23 filing status from "Head of Household " to "Single . " 24 Third, respondent determined that petitioner wa s 25 liable for the late filing addition under section Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 4 1 6651, the late payment addition under 6651 (a)(2), and 2 the addition for failure to pay estimated taxes unde r 3 section 6654 . When petitionePr eventually submitted a 4 return to the Appeals Officer ' Steve Armi on May 11 , 5 2007, petitioner acknowledged ' a $14,756 tax liabilit y 6 and claimed he was owed a ref1und . Except for the 7 concession regarding P .B ., petitioner contests all the 8 adjustments respondent determined in the deficienc y 9 notice . 10 OPINION 11 We first address the dependency exemptions . 12 A taxpayer is allowed an annual exemption deductio n 13 for each " dependent " as defined in section 152 . Sec . 14 151(c) . The term "dependent"liincludes a taxpayer's 15 child provided the taxpayer povided over one-half of 16 the child' s support for the year . Sec . 152(d) (1) (C) . 17 The term "qualifying child" includes a person's son if 18 the child lives with that person for more than one- 19 half of the year . 20 Petitioner provided testimony that J .B . 21 resided with him for the entire year and tha t 22 petitioner provided over half !,the support of J .B . 23 Petitioner is therefore entitled to claim J .B . as a 24 dependent for 2004 . 25 We also conclude that petitioner may file as Heritage Reporting Corporatio n (202) 628-4888 5 1 head of household for 2004 . An individual wil l 2 qualify for head of household status if the taxpaye r 3 maintains as his or her homela household that is the 4 principal place of abode of a dependent for more than 5 one-half of the taxable year ., Sec . 2(b) (1) (A) (1) . 6 Here, petitioner has proven t hat J .B . is a dependent 7 of his . Moreover, the record reflects that J .B . live d 8 with petitioner for the entire year . 9 Accordingly, petitioner is entitled to claim 10 head of household status for12004 . We therefore do 11 not sustain respondent's adjulstment in the deficienc y 12 notice changing petitioner's filing status from "Hea d 13 of Household" to "Single . " 14 We next address the ' additions to tax . 15 Respondent determined that Petitioner was liable for a 16 $1,991 .70 late filing addition under section 17 6651( a)(1), a $209 .38 late payment addition under 18 section 6651 ( a)(2), and a $79 1,6 .68 failure to pay 19 estimated taxes addition under 6654 in the deficienc y 20 notice . 21 Section 6651( a)(1) imposes an addition to 22 tax for filing to file a return on or before the 23 specified filing date unless it is shown that this 24 failure is due to reasonable cause and not willful 25 neglect . Reasonable cause may exist if a taxpayer Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 6 1 exercised ordinary business care and prudence and was 2 nonetheless unable to file the return within the date 3 prescribed by law . Sec . 301 . 651-1(c)(1), Proced . & 4 Admin . Regs . Willful neglect '' means a "conscious , 5 intentional failure or reckless indifference ." Unite d 6 States v . Boyle , 469 U .S . 241 245 (1985 ) . 1~nqn ~ 7 Here, petitioner faded toAa tax return and 8 did not meet his burden to show that it was due t o 9 reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect . Th e 10 late filing addition under section 6651(a)(1) and the 11 late payment addition under section 6651(a)(2) shal l 12 be applied . 13 We next address the'estimated tax addition 14 to tax under section 6654 . Section 6654( a) imposes an 15 addition to tax for failure to pay estimated tax by an 16 individual . The addition to tax under section 6654(a ) 17 is mandatory unless one of the exceptions in section 18 6654(e) applies . Sec . 6654(a), (e) ; Recklitis v . 19 Commissioner , 91 T .C . 874, 913 (1988) . ("This section 20 has no provision relating to reasonable cause and lack 21 of willful neglect . It is mandatory, and extenuatin g 22 circumstances are irrelevant .,") None of the statutory 23 exceptions under section 6654iI(e) applies in this case . 24 Accordingly, we affirm respondent's determination that 25 petitioner is liable for the~,addition to tax unde r Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 7 1 section 6654(a) for underpaying estimated tax . 2 To reflect the foregoing, a decision will b e 3 entered for petitioner regarding head-of-househol d 4 status and claiming J .B . as a',dependent . In all other 5 respects, we sustain respondent's determinations i n 6 the deficiency notice . 7 This concludes the Court's oral findings of 8 fact and opinion in this case 9 (Whereupon , at 2 :08 , p .m ., the bench opinion 10 in the above - entitled matter was concluded . ) 11 / / 12 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 2 4 25 Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628'-4888