- 48 -
In the end, petitioners and Becker relied upon Miller and
other PI personnel for the value of the Sentinel EPE recycler and
the economic viability of the Partnership transactions. See
Vojticek v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1995-444, to the effect that
advice from such persons "is better classified as sales
promotion." Becker did not possess any education, special
qualifications, or professional skills in plastics materials or
plastics recycling. A taxpayer may rely upon his adviser's
expertise (in these cases accounting and tax advice), but it is
not reasonable or prudent to rely upon a tax adviser regarding
matters outside his field of expertise or with respect to facts
that he does not verify. See Goldman v. Commissioner, 39 F.3d at
408; Skeen v. Commissioner, 864 F.2d 93 (9th Cir. 1989), affg.
sub nom. Patin v. Commissioner, 88 T.C. 1086 (1987); Lax v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-329; Rogers v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1990-619.
3. The Private Offering Memoranda
In addition to purportedly relying on Becker, petitioners
maintain that they reasonably relied upon the offering memoranda
and the tax opinion letter appended thereto. However,
petitioners' testimony and actions indicate that they did not
thoroughly review or study all of the information set out in the
Page: Previous 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011