Carter v Southwest Standard Service, 2009 ACO #177
The Commission remanded this matter to the magistrate to allow the plaintiff to either produce evidence from the IRS that tax returns do not exist or, alternatively, produce his income tax returns for the requested years. At the time of the original trial the defendant subpoenaed the plaintiff, requesting he produce his income tax returns for 2001 through 2004. Both the plaintiff and his attorney agreed that the records did exist and indicated that the plaintiff’s tax preparer would produce the records on the trial date. The tax records were never produced and the magistrate treated the tax records as though they did not exist despite the plaintiff’s testimony otherwise.

Key point: where tax records are requested by the defendants, they are specifically relevant to the wage calculation and must be produced or, in the alternative, admissible documentation must be provided indicating that no tax records exist for the dates requested.