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Respondent's refusal to waive a section 6659 addition to tax is
reviewable by this Court for abuse of discretion. Krause v.
Commissioner, 99 T.C. at 179. Abuse of discretion has been found
in situations where respondent's refusal to exercise such
discretion is arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable. See
Mailman v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. 1079 (1988); Estate of Gardner
v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 989 (1984); Haught v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1993-58.
We note initially that there is no showing in the record
that petitioners timely requested a waiver. We are reluctant to
find that respondent abused any discretion in this case when
respondent was not timely requested to exercise it and there is
no direct evidence of any abuse of administrative discretion.
Haught v. Commissioner, supra; cf. Wynn v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 1995-609; Klieger v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-734.
However, we do not decide this issue solely on petitioners'
failure timely to request a waiver but instead, we have
considered the issue on its merits. Petitioners urge that
petitioner "did all that one could reasonably be expected to do"
in deciding on the valuation claimed on their 1981 tax return.
However, as we explained above in finding petitioners liable for
the negligence additions to tax, petitioner's purported
conclusion with respect to the fair market value of the Sentinel
EPE recycler was not reasonable. In view of his extensive
knowledge and experience in plastics, and the resources readily
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