- 51 - for valuation overstatement if taxpayers establish that there was a reasonable basis for the adjusted bases or valuations claimed on the returns and that such claims were made in good faith. 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 her 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 petitioners did not request respondent to waive the section 6659 addition to tax until more than 4 months after the trial of this case. 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 relied on Bach in deciding on the valuation claimed on their 1981 tax return. Petitioners contend that such reliance was reasonable and, therefore, that respondent should have waivedPage: Previous 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Next
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