Doctor Escapes Penalty for Inaccurate Returns by Proving Reliance on Return Preparer

The Tax Court held that a doctor was not liable for a 20 percent negligence penalty where she exercised ordinary business care and prudence by relying on her long-term tax return preparer, whom she believed to be a competent professional, to accurately report gain from a large stock sale on the appropriate year’s tax return. The court concluded that where a taxpayer is completely unaware of a return preparer’s numerous errors, those errors cannot be used retroactively to prove that the preparer is incompetent. Whitsett v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2017-100.

 


Have questions? I’m here to help.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.