- 59 -- 59 -
not to permit any prospective investor to rely upon our
advice in this matter. [Emphasis added.]
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, 875 F.2d at
138. 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.
4. Miscellaneous
The parties in these consolidated cases stipulated that the
fair market value of a Sentinel EPE recycler in 1981 and 1982 was
not in excess of $50,000. Notwithstanding this concession,
petitioners contend that they were reasonable in claiming credits
on their Federal income tax returns based upon each recycler's
having a value of $1,162,666. In support of this position,
petitioners in docket Nos. 16922-90 and 19612-90 submitted into
evidence preliminary reports prepared for respondent by Ernest D.
Carmagnola (Carmagnola), the president of Professional Plastic
Associates. 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
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