Green

MEMORANDUM **

Jacqueline and Theodore Green appeal pro se from the tax court’s decision upholding deficiency determinations for 2000 and 2001. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7482 (a)(1). We review de novo the tax court’s interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code (“I.R.C.”), Ewing v. Comm’r, 489 F.3d 1009, 1012 (9th Cir. 2006), and we affirm.

The tax court properly determined that the Social Security benefits Mrs. Green received in 2000 and 2001 are not excludable from taxable gross income under I.R.C. § 104. The plain language of I.R.C. § 86(a) expressly includes Social Security benefits as taxable income. See 26 U.S.C. § 86 (a) (“gross income ... includes social security benefits”). Moreover, the benefit payments received under the Social Security Act are not restricted to cases of work-related injury or sickness, as required under I.R.C. § 104. See Take v. Comm’r, 804 F.2d 553, 557 (9th Cir.1986) (“Statutes that do not restrict the payment of benefits to cases of work-related injury or sickness are not considered to be ‘workmen’s compensation acts’ under section 104.”); see also 42 U.S.C. § 423 (providing Social Security disability benefits regardless of…