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Court by order set a deadline of January 30, 2004, for completion
of the hearing, which was subsequently extended to March 1, 2004.
A conference was thereupon scheduled for March 1, 2004. Prior to
the conference, Settlement Officer Waters advised petitioner
that, notwithstanding respondent's previous unwillingness to
consider challenges to the underlying liabilities that had been
self-assessed, such challenges would now be considered in light
of Montgomery v. Commissioner, 122 T.C. 1 (2004).4 Petitioner
did not appear for the conference, sending instead a letter to
Settlement Officer Waters which stated that it should constitute
petitioner's appearance (absentee letter).
In the absentee letter, petitioner: (i) Objected to the
participation of a second Appeals officer in a previous
conference,5 on the grounds that the second Appeals officer would
improperly influence the determination; (ii) contended that he
did not receive any notice of deficiency for 1996 and was
consequently entitled to dispute his underlying tax liability for
that year; (iii) expressed a desire to dispute his underlying
4 Although respondent's records indicated that petitioner
had filed a return for 1992 on June 10, 1994, Appeals was
initially unable to locate the return. However, on Oct. 23,
2003, petitioner's 1992 return was obtained by Appeals, and a
copy was forwarded to petitioner on Oct. 27, 2003, along with the
entire contents of his administrative file.
5 Petitioner had attended a meeting with Appeals personnel
in December 2003 that was suspended when petitioner insisted that
he be permitted to obtain counsel before proceeding further.
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