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requests approximately 4 months after the trials of their cases.
We are reluctant to find that respondent abused discretion in
these cases 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 waivers but instead, we have considered
the issue on its merits. Petitioners urge that they relied on
the offering materials and Maxfield in deciding on the valuation
claimed on their tax returns. Petitioners contend that such
reliance was reasonable and, therefore, that respondent should
have waived the section 6659 additions to tax. However, as we
explained above in finding petitioners liable for the negligence
additions to tax, petitioners' purported reliance on the offering
materials and on Maxfield, with respect to matters outside his
area of expertise, was not reasonable.
To varying degrees, each of petitioners reviewed at least
one of the offering memoranda for the Partnerships, each of which
contained numerous warnings and caveats, including the likelihood
that the value placed on the recyclers would be challenged by the
IRS as being in excess of fair market value. Petitioners could
not have failed to learn from either the offering materials or
Maxfield that the purported value of the Sentinel EPE recycler
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