Peter and Ursula Reimann, et al. - Page 33

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          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                
          inadequate information,9 research, and investigation, and were              
          subsequently rejected and discredited by their author.                      
          Respondent likewise rejected the reports and considered them                
          unsatisfactory for any purpose, and there is no indication in the           
          records that respondent used them as a basis for any                        
          determinations in the notices of deficiency.  Even so,                      
          petitioners' counsel obtained copies of these reports and urge              
          that they support the reasonableness of the values reported on              
          petitioners' returns.  Not surprisingly, petitioners did not call           
          Carmagnola to testify in these cases,10 but preferred instead to            
          rely solely upon his preliminary, ill-founded valuation                     
          estimates.  The Carmagnola reports were a part of the record                
          considered by this Court and reviewed by the Sixth Circuit Court            

          9    In one preliminary report, Carmagnola states that he has "a            
          serious concern of actual profit-level" of a Sentinel EPE                   
          recycler and that to determine whether the machines actually                
          could be profitable, he required additional information from PI.            
          Carmagnola also indicates that in preparing the report, he did              
          not have information available concerning research and                      
          development costs of the machines and that he estimated those               
          costs in his valuations of the machines.                                    
          10   Carmagnola has not been called to testify in any of the                
          Plastics Recycling cases before us.                                         


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