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on their Federal income tax returns based upon each recycler
having a value of $1,162,666. In support of this position,
petitioners 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 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, research, and investigation, and were
subsequently rejected and discredited by their author. In one
preliminary report, Carmagnola states that he has "a serious
concern of actual profit" from 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
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