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for more than 2 decades and time barred for more than 15 years,
in this case the open claim and the time-barred claim arose at
approximately the same time.
In two recent decisions, Estate of Harrah v. United States,
77 F.3d 1122 (9th Cir. 1995), and Parker v. United States, 110
F.3d 678 (9th Cir. 1997), the Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit, the circuit to which any appeal in this case would lie,
held that equitable recoupment was not available because, inter
alia, on the facts in those cases no tax had been imposed twice
on a single transaction. These cases are distinguishable from
the case at hand.
In Estate of Harrah v. United States, supra, William F.
Harrah died in 1978. His estate included 5,930,301 shares of
common stock of Harrah's Inc. (Harrah's), which were valued at
$13.325 per share in the estate tax return filed in 1980. In
1980, Harrah's was merged with Holiday Inns, Inc. (Holiday Inns).
In this merger, the estate received $60,262,886 of cash, a $45
million promissory note executed by Holiday Inns, and convertible
subordinated debentures of Holiday Inns with a face value of
$105,262,800.
The amount of the taxable gain reported by the estate from
the merger transaction depended upon the value of the promissory
note and the convertible subordinated debentures and the basis of
the Harrah's stock. On its 1980 income tax return, the estate
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