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A. Atkins and Biggs advised me that the 3081
useful life could be, and would likely be in
the range of 10 to 15 years. So, I believe,
in my mind, I was using 12 years, in my
assessment of what we might realize on the
residuals at the end of the leases.
We cannot find as a fact that petitioners relied
upon tax advice from petitioner's partner, Mr. Gerver.
Mr. Gerver testified as follows:
Q. Did you write that out, give that in
writing? Did you give the tax opinion in
writing?
A. If I'm giving an opinion, I have to put it
in writing. An oral opinion, as you know,
isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Q. Did you give a tax opinion in this case?
A. To who?
Q. To Petitioner?
A. No, we spoke about it. I discussed it with
him and I told him that, from what I could
see, the tax issues were the ones that were
familiar to me, I didn't think that there
was any tax issue that we had to be con-
cerned about that they did not cover, but
they didn't cover such as, for example, the
opinion, as I recall, makes no mention that
this is a transaction entered into for
profit. I said I felt that since that's
where we were going, everything was a
transaction entered into for profit, and I
didn't think we need an opinion to that
effect.
Q. So you gave nothing to the taxpayer in
writing, is that correct?
A. No.
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