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The opinions from the Eighth and Ninth Circuits create one
of the unique problems that our Court sometimes has to face--we
have always believed that Congress meant us to decide like cases
alike, no matter where in the nation they arose, so that our
precedents could be relied on by all taxpayers. Appeals from our
decisions, though, go to twelve different circuit courts and so
we have often had to react to appellate reversal by only one of
7(...continued)
under � 6015(e) unless a deficiency was asserted against the
individual petitioning for review,” Bartman, 446 F.3d at 787.
Future cases may well show that Congress meant to give us
jurisdiction when a deficiency was “asserted” because it wanted
to allow taxpayers to petition for relief well before the IRS
sends out a notice of deficiency or makes an assessment--perhaps
as soon as issuance of a revenue agent’s report, or some other
time during an examination, when the IRS first “states that
additional taxes may be owed.” H. Conf. Rept. 106-1033, 1023
(2000), 2000-3 C.B. 304, 353 (quoted in Ewing I, 118 T.C. at
504).
The terms “determination” and “assessment” are not
customarily regarded as synonyms in tax law. A “determination”
is the IRS’s final decision, see, e.g., secs. 6212(a),
6230(a)(3)(B). And an “assessment” is the specific procedure by
which the IRS officially records a liability, see sec. 6203,
triggering its power to collect taxes administratively. (The
Code generally bars the IRS from assessing taxes that are being
contested in our Court. See sec. 6213(a).)
We note too that, although notices of deficiency establish
jurisdiction in most of our cases, see Bartman, 446 F.3d at 787,
Congress has given us jurisdiction over cases in which there need
be no deficiency--for example, review of the Commissioner’s
determinations after IRS collection due process hearings. Sec.
6330(d)(1). However, because there was no deficiency lurking in
this case at all, we need not decide whether an “assertion of
deficiency” is synonymous with a “notice of deficiency,” much
less an “assessment”, in defining the limits of our jurisdiction
under section 6015(e). See generally sec. 1.6015-5(b)(5), Income
Tax Regs.
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