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substance was separate and independent from the overvaluation of
the Sentinel EPE recyclers. To the contrary, in holding that the
Partnership transactions lacked economic substance, we relied
heavily upon the overvaluation of the recyclers. Overvaluation
of the recyclers was an integral factor in regard to: (1) The
disallowed tax credits and other benefits in these cases; (2) the
underpayments of tax; and (3) our finding that the Partnership
transactions lacked economic substance.
Petitioners argue that in Provizer v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1992-177, we found that the Clearwater transaction lacked
economic substance for reasons independent of the valuation
reported in that case. According to petitioners, the purported
value of the recyclers in the Clearwater transaction was
predicated upon a projected stream of royalty income, and this
Court merely rejected the taxpayers' valuation method.
Petitioners misread and distort our Provizer opinion. In the
Provizer case, overvaluation of the Sentinel EPE recyclers,
irrespective of the technique employed by the taxpayers in their
efforts to justify the overvaluation, was the dominant factor
that led us to hold that the Clearwater transaction lacked
economic substance. Likewise, overvaluation of the Sentinel
recyclers in these cases is the ground for our holding herein
that the Partnership transactions lacked economic substance.
Moreover, a virtually identical argument was recently
rejected in Gilman v. Commissioner, supra, by the Court of
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