- 31 -
Accordingly, the tax opinion letters expressly indicate that
prospective investors such as petitioners were not to rely upon
the tax opinion letter. See Collins v. Commissioner, supra. The
limited, technical opinion of tax counsel expressed in these
letters was not designed as advice upon which taxpayers might
rely, and the opinion of counsel itself so states. As
sophisticated attorneys and investors, Friedman and Alter knew or
should have known that the opinion letter had a limited function,
that the caveats and warnings in the letter were to be taken
seriously, and certainly that they could not rely upon the
opinion letter without full investigation of the economic and
other factual assumptions upon which it explicitly was based.
2. The So-Called Oil Crisis
Petitioners each testified that they reasonably expected to
make an economic profit from the Partnership transactions because
plastic is an oil derivative and the United States was
experiencing a so-called oil crisis during the year 1981. Based
upon our review of the records, we find petitioners' claims
unconvincing, regardless of the so-called oil crisis. Moreover,
testimony by one of respondent's experts establishes that the oil
pricing changes during the late 1970's and early 1980's did not
justify petitioners' claiming excessive investment credits and
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