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Petitioners did not file a notice of appeal or a timely
motion to vacate or revise the decision entered May 8, 1987.
Consequently, the decision became final on August 6,
1987, 90 days after the decision was entered. Sec. 7481(a)(1).
During the period that petitioners' case was docketed with
the Court, 14 dockets and 8 petitioners with Kersting-related
adjustments were selected as "test" cases for trial.7 Mr. McWade
served as respondent's lead counsel during the trial of the test
cases. One of the taxpayers selected as a test case, John
Thompson, was represented at trial by Mr. DeCastro.
Following a trial on the merits of the test cases, the Court
issued its Memorandum Opinion sustaining virtually all of
respondent's determinations in each of the test cases. See Dixon
v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1991-614 (Dixon II). As a
preliminary matter, the Court rejected the test-case taxpayers'
argument, similar to that raised here, that the notices of
deficiency issued to them were null and void on the ground that
the Commissioner failed to make a determination as required by
Scar v. Commissioner, 814 F.2d 1363 (9th Cir. 1987), revg. 81
7 More than 1,800 cases were filed with this Court by
participants in the Kersting plans seeking redeterminations of
the deficiencies determined by respondent (the Kersting group).
The bulk of the more than 1,300 remaining docketed cases in the
Kersting group are covered by "piggyback agreements" in which the
taxpayer(s) and respondent stipulated to be bound by the Court's
opinion in the test cases. Hundreds of non-test cases in the
Kersting group have been disposed of, like the case at hand, by
entry of a stipulated decision.
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