Bruce and Lois Zenkel, et al. - Page 60

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          recycling.  Becker purportedly discussed the transactions with              
          Canno, who apparently was familiar with the plastics industry,              
          but Canno was not hired by Becker to investigate PI and the                 
          Sentinel EPE recycler, never saw a Sentinel EPE recycler, and               
          never prepared any kind of formal, written analysis of the                  
          venture.  Accordingly, we consider petitioners' arguments with              
          respect to the Mollen case inapplicable under the circumstances             
          of these cases.                                                             
               Petitioners also rely on two recent decisions by the Court             
          of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that reversed this Court's                 
          imposition of the negligence additions to tax in non-plastics               
          recycling cases:  Durrett v. Commissioner, 71 F.3d 515 (5th Cir.            
          1996), affg. in part and revg. in part T.C. Memo. 1994-179; and             
          Chamberlain v. Commissioner, 66 F.3d 729 (5th Cir. 1995), affg.             
          in part and revg. in part T.C. Memo. 1994-228.  The taxpayers in            
          the Durrett and Chamberlain cases were among thousands who                  
          invested in the First Western tax shelter program involving                 
          alleged straddle transactions of forward contracts.  In the                 
          Durrett and Chamberlain cases, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth           
          Circuit concluded that the taxpayers reasonably relied upon                 
          professional advice concerning tax matters.  In other First                 
          Western cases, however, the Courts of Appeals have affirmed                 
          decisions of the Tax Court imposing negligence additions to tax.            
          See Chakales v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-408 (reliance on              






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