Snell Isle, Inc. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 8279.
| Decision Date | 09 June 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 8279.,8279. |
| Citation | 90 F.2d 481 |
| Parties | SNELL ISLE, Incorporated, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Geo. E. H. Goodner, of Washington, D. C., for petitioner.
Joseph M. Jones, Norman D. Keller, and Sewall Key, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., Robert H. Jackson and James W. Morris, Asst. Attys. Gen., and Herman Oliphant, Gen. Counsel, Department of Treasury, and Bruce A. Low, Sp. Atty., Bureau of Internal Revenue, both of Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before FOSTER, SIBLEY, and HUTCHESON, Circuit Judges.
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue determined deficiencies in income taxes of petitioner for the fiscal years ending April 30, 1926, to April 30, 1929, both inclusive, amounting to $34,894.54. Deeming the returns were fraudulent, he also assessed a penalty of 50 per cent. in addition. Petitioner appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals. The Commissioner answered, affirmatively pleading fraud in the preparation and filing of the returns. The Board found that the Commissioner had not sustained the burden of proving fraud and decided against him on that ground. But the Board also held that petitioner had failed to overcome the presumption in favor of the correctness of the Commissioner's determination of the deficiencies and affirmed the ruling of the Commissioner in that respect.
It appears from the record that when the case was heard before the Board counsel for petitioner insisted that the Commissioner had the burden of proof and should take the lead in putting in his evidence. The member presiding ruled that petitioner had the burden of proof to show there was no deficiency. Counsel for petitioner then moved that the Commissioner be required to proceed with his proof upon the fraud question because petitioner's evidence was in the nature of rebuttal. The motion was overruled. An exception was taken to the ruling, but that is not assigned as error. Petitioner introduced three documents, which are conceded to be immaterial and which we are unable to locate in the record, and rested. The Commissioner then offered photostatic copies of petitioner's income tax returns and the evidence of one witness and rested. Petitioner offered no further evidence. This was all that was before the Board.
Petitioner contends that having assessed penalties for the filing of fraudulent returns, the burden was on the Commissioner not only to show fraud, but also to show that the returns as made were otherwise not correct, on the ground that the deficiencies determined were based on disallowances of certain items upon which the charge of fraud was also predicated.
The case before the Board presented two questions for decision; one, whether the returns truly reflected the income of petitioner subject to taxation; and, two, whether they were also fraudulently made. It is elementary that a ruling of the Commissioner assessing income taxes is presumed to be correct and a taxpayer disputing the assessment has the...
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Ellis v. Farmer
...cash book. Respondent states that he is not bound by the entries in respondent's Exhibit O, stressing Snell Isle, Inc., v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 5 Cir., 90 F.2d 481, 482; 32 C.J.S., Evidence, Sec. 1040d, notes 12-14, p. 1114. Respondent's case of Talley v. Richart, 353 Mo. 912, ......
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...a civil fraud penalty, each party has its own peculiar burden of proof.15 The result is, as we once pointed out, Snell Isle, Inc. v. Commissioner, 5 Cir., 1937, 90 F.2d 481, certiorari denied 302 U.S. 734, 58 S.Ct. 120, 82 L.Ed. 568, the case may end in a standoff from the failure of each p......
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Hoffman v. Commissioner
...Commissioner's deficiency finding was correct by showing a preponderance of evidence that the Commissioner erred. Snell Isle v. Commissioner, 5th Cir. 1937, 90 F. 2d 481 37-1 USTC ¶ 9341 * * 3 Reference is also made to the rule that failure of a party to introduce evidence within his posses......
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