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predecessor to section 6324(a)(2), for the unpaid Federal estate
taxes. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit did not
dispute this Court's determination that the predecessor to
section 6324(a)(2) imposed transferee liability on the trustee
despite the trustee's having distributed the trust assets;
however, the Court of Appeals concluded that equitable estoppel
prevented the Commissioner from imposing transferee liability
upon the trustee. The court reasoned that it would be grossly
unfair to hold the trustee liable as transferee under the
predecessor to section 6342(a)(2), especially because it never
enjoyed the use of the trust corpus and merely acted in the
capacity of a trustee.
Equitable estoppel is to be applied against the government
with the utmost caution and restraint. Schuster v. Commissioner,
supra at 317. In Estate of Emerson v. Commissioner, 67 T.C. 612,
617-618 (1977), we described the elements necessary to establish
equitable estoppel as follows:
1) There must be a false representation or wrongful
misleading silence; 2) the error must be in a statement
of fact and not in an opinion or a statement of law; 3)
the person claiming the benefits of estoppel must be
ignorant of the true facts; and 4) he must be adversely
affected by the acts or statement of the person against
whom an estoppel is claimed * * *.
The facts which supported equitable estoppel in Schuster are not
present in the record before us. There has been no
misrepresentation or misleading silence by respondent regarding
the Federal estate tax deficiency or petitioner's liability;
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