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IV. Resolution of Certain Questions That Relate
to All or Some of the Transactions at Issue
Having set forth the positions of the parties with respect
to the various matters they believe are important to resolving
the issues presented in these cases, we first decide (A) certain
questions they raise that relate to all the transactions at issue
(namely, (1) whether the relationships among the persons involved
in each of those transactions are such that they are factors we
will take into account in deciding whether any of those transac-
tions should be recharacterized and (2)(a) whether the form of
each of those transactions had a nontax, business purpose and
(b) whether the interest deductions claimed by Radcliffe and BOT
indicate an intention to minimize tax with respect to any of
those transactions) and (B) certain questions they raise that
relate only to the Bank transactions (namely, (1) whether the
binding commitment test of the step transaction doctrine applies
to any of the Bank transactions and (2) whether the role of the
banks in question in any of the transactions in which each of
those banks was involved may be ignored or recharacterized even
though the parties agree on brief that those banks were engaged
in commercial banking and that they were not controlled by
Radcliffe, BOT, or the foreign corporations pledging collateral).
After deciding those questions, we analyze the transactions at
issue to determine whether the form of each of those transactions
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