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advice as to whether payments were properly deductible or
capitalized. The advice relied upon by the taxpayer in Mauerman
was within the scope of the advisers' expertise, the
interpretation of the tax laws as applied to undisputed facts.
In Snyder's cases, particularly with respect to valuation, he
relied upon advice which was outside the scope of expertise and
experience of his supposed advisers. Consequently, we consider
Snyder's reliance on the Mauerman case inapplicable.
Snyder also submitted into evidence preliminary reports
prepared for respondent by Ernest D. Carmagnola (Carmagnola), the
president of Professional Plastic Associates, in support of his
position that the valuation he claimed on his returns was
reasonable. Carmagnola had been retained by the IRS in 1984 to
evaluate the Sentinel EPE and EPS recyclers in light of what he
described as "the fantastic values placed on the [recyclers] by
the owners." Based on limited information available to him at
that time, Carmagnola preliminarily estimated that the value of
the Sentinel EPE recycler was $250,000. However, after
additional information became available to him, Carmagnola
concluded in a signed affidavit, dated March 16, 1993, that the
machines actually had a fair market value of not more than
$50,000 each in the fall of 1981 and 1982.
We accord no weight to the Carmagnola reports submitted by
petitioners. The projected valuations therein were based on
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