Taxpayer Earns Penalty For Bad Arguments and No Evidence.

 The petitioner, a lawyer, was the non-custodial parent of his children.  He claimed a child tax credit and an additional child tax credit for a year in which the children lived with his former spouse who had custody, but the IRS disallowed the credits because the children were not "qualifying children in accordance with I.R.C. Sec. 152(c).  The IRS also disallowed a dependency exemption because the petitioner did not attach Form 8283 to the return or other written declaration of exemption release from his former spouse and the divorce decree was not signed by the former spouse.  The court also upheld the IRS' disallowance of a deduction for telephone expenses attributable to the petitioner's business due to a lack of substantiation.   The court also upheld the denial of other claimed business deductions associated with the petitioner's law practice due to a lack of substantiation.  The court also disallowed a charitable deduction due to the lack of a contemporaneous written acknowledgement for contributions above $250.  Interestingly, the petitioner had written an acknowledgement letter to himself thanking himself for the contribution.  The court also disallowed a domestic production activities deduction attributable to grading and surveying expenses on property claimed to be held for timber harvesting because no timber had been harvested and, hence, the property didn't generate any gross receipts or QPAI.  In addition, the court denied medical expense deductions associated with in vitro fertilization treatments because the petitioner failed to prove that he was sterile.   Claimed deductions were also disallowed for payment of a child's college tuition and fees due to the lack of substantiation.  The court also disallowed a business mileage deduction due to a lack of substantiation.  The court did allow a  partial deduction for expenses attributable to the petitioner's office in the home, but denied part of the claimed expenses due to a lack of substantiation.  The court upheld an accuracy-related penalty of 20 percent of the underpayment due to negligence and lack of proof that he engaged a competent professional to prepare the return.  Longino v. Comr., No. 14-11508, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 23355 (11th Cir. Dec. 12, 2014), aff'g., T.C. Memo. 2013-80.