Estate of Gordon H. Bartels, Deceased, Sally A. Jouris and Thomas G. Bartels, Executors, and Estate of Violet J. Bartels, Deceased, Sally A. Jouris and Thomas G. Bartels, Executors - Page 7

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               In Estate of Mueller v. Commissioner, supra, we concluded              
          that, because the foundation of our jurisdiction was an estate              
          tax deficiency, the case did not fall within the scope of section           
          6214(b), which speaks only in terms of determinations of "a                 
          deficiency of income tax for any taxable year or of gift tax for            
          any calendar year or calendar quarter".  Under these                        
          circumstances, we held that we had jurisdiction to permit the               
          petitioner to offset a barred income tax overpayment.                       
               Respondent urges us to overrule Estate of Mueller and return           
          to the historical picture that evolved from Commissioner v. Gooch           
          Milling & Elevator Co., 320 U.S. 418 (1943), and reflected a                
          consistent denial of our jurisdiction to allow equitable                    
          recoupment.  This we will not do.                                           
               Alternatively, respondent argues that because income tax               
          deficiencies are the basis of our jurisdiction herein, Estate of            
          Mueller is distinguishable and section 6214(b) clearly applies.             
          We disagree.  In focusing on the opening language of section                
          6214(b), respondent ignores the concluding language of the                  
          section, which speaks in terms of our not having "jurisdiction to           
          determine whether or not the tax for any other year or calendar             
          quarter has been overpaid or underpaid" (emphasis added).  We               
          think this language means that, at most, section 6214(b) may                
          operate to preclude us from determining the income tax or gift              
          tax for any prior period.  In this connection, we note that in              




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