Benson

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

BURTON O. BENSON; ELIZABETH C. 

BENSON,

No. 07-72272 Petitioners, v.  Tax Ct. No. 12967-

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL

OPINION

REVENUE,

Respondent.  Appeal from a Decision of the United States Tax Court

Argued and Submitted January 12, 2009—San Francisco, California

Filed March 31, 2009

Before: J. Clifford Wallace, Jerome Farris and M. Margaret McKeown, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Farris COUNSEL

John M. Youngquist, San Francisco, California, for petition- ers Burton Benson and Elizabeth Benson.

Ellen Page DeSole, Department of Justice, Tax Division, Washington, D.C.; Michael J. Huangs, Department of Justice, Tax Division, Washington, D.C.; Nathan J. Hochman, Assis- tant Attorney General, for respondent Commissioner of Inter- nal Revenue.

OPINION

FARRIS, Senior Circuit Judge:

Burton and Elizabeth Benson, husband and wife, filed joint tax returns between September 1994 and December 1995 for 3874 BENSON v. CIR the years 1989, 1990, 1993, and 1994.1 Burton was a retired Navy admiral and engineer, and was the 100 percent…