Claude E. and Dana L. Salazar - Page 20




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          liability for the amount has been fully satisfied.  Thus                    
          respondent argues, if respondent were to accept an offer-in-                
          compromise and the liabilities were thereby fully satisfied, he             
          would jeopardize any secured claim to the bankruptcy                        
          distribution.   Accordingly, as respondent’s counsel argues, an             
          offer-in-compromise will not be accepted while a bankruptcy is              
          pending if the offer is less than the amount he reasonably stands           
          to receive when the bankruptcy distribution occurs.                         
               We believe, however, that respondent’s risk, or at least his           
          perceived risk, goes beyond simply the release of any secured               
          claim he has to the bankruptcy distribution.  If an offer-in-               
          compromise must include all of the outstanding liabilities of the           
          taxpayer, then acceptance and satisfaction of the offer would               
          risk, if not extinguish, all claims the Commissioner had to the             
          bankruptcy assets.  The administrative record suggests it was               
          this more generalized risk, to all of respondent’s claims, that             
          concerned Mr. Conte in evaluating petitioners’ offer-in-                    
          compromise.  Nonetheless, petitioners fail to point to any                  
          authority to suggest that respondent’s position that accepting an           
          offer-in-compromise jeopardized the bankruptcy distribution was             
          without legal basis, and the Court knows of none.                           
               In furtherance of their argument that the bankruptcy                   
          distribution was not at risk, petitioners highlight their offer             
          to relinquish any claim to the bankruptcy distribution for the              







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