- 31 -
required to submit a quarterly tax shelter report providing an
update on the status of the project, including a summary of the
current project settlement offer and any recent court action
affecting the project.
One of the goals of the tax shelter program was consistent
treatment of similarly situated taxpayers. The Tax Shelter
Branch monitored settlement offers in similar tax shelter
projects for disparities and tried to determine whether the
project settlement offers should be similar. However, actual
supervisory responsibility in a tax shelter project was left
primarily in the Regional Counsel and District Counsel offices
to which the project was assigned.
B. Petitions for Redetermination
In or around June 1982, Mr. Kersting facilitated the filing
of petitions with the Tax Court by Kersting program participants.
In letters issued in June and July 1982, Mr. Kersting informed
Kersting program participants that a joint petition was being
prepared on behalf of a large group of taxpayers. On July 12,
1982, Lu N. Nevels, Jr., filed a consolidated Tax Court petition,
assigned docket No. 17445-82, on behalf of 60 Kersting program
participants.18
18 Lu N. Nevels, Jr., had represented the test case
taxpayers in Pike v. Commissioner, 78 T.C. 822 (1982), affd.
without published opinion 732 F.2d 164 (9th Cir. 1984). For an
example of the problems created by using one petition on behalf
of so many different petitioners, see Aaronson v. Commissioner,
T.C. Memo. 1985-131, involving the Hongsermeier petitioners in
what is now docket No. 29643-86. See infra p. 38.
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