Mileage, Meal and Entertainment Deductions Disallowed (T.C. Bench) (IRC §274)

Taxpayer could not meet the heightened substantiation requirements for mileage deductions using reconstructed mileage logs because significant inconsistencies existed between the Department of Motor Vehicles records, the taxpayer’s business records, and the taxpayer’s tax returns, the U.S. Tax Court held in a bench opinion posted on the court’s website July 31, sustaining the IRS’s notice of deficiency and accuracy-related penalties. The court also sustained meal and entertainment deduction disallowances because the taxpayer could not prove that amounts spent on tickets from StubHub, at flower shops, an equipment rental facility, and on transit tickets were deductible business expenses under I.R.C. §162. …