The U.S. Tax Court ruled that a taxpayer who worked as a taxi driver and a real estate appraiser wasn’t eligible to deduct vehicle-related expenses relating to an appraisal business he operated from a friend’s house. The court stated that the taxpayer didn’t meet strict substantiation requirements. Rather, he offered only inconsistent testimony and noncontemporaneous logs and spreadsheets that contained numerous implausible and unreliable entries. He also failed to clarify if logged trips included travel for an assistant who sometimes made trips to sites for him. (TC Memo 2019-109) www.mjscpa.com/news/