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before us.” A spouse or former spouse may therefore elect to
seek relief from joint and several liability by pleading the
issue in a petition for redetermination of a deficiency.
A second basis upon which we may exercise jurisdiction to
decide entitlement to relief from joint and several liability is
that established in section 6015(e). This provision enables an
electing spouse to petition for review of an administrative
determination regarding relief, or failure to rule, as a “stand
alone” matter independent of any deficiency proceeding. See
Fernandez v. Commissioner, 114 T.C. ___, ___ (2000) (slip op. at
7, 9).
Here, Judith’s claim for innocent spouse relief was raised
as an amendment to petitioners’ original petition for deficiency
redetermination. Although no subsequent filing was made to
substitute a claim for relief under section 6015 for the section
6013(e) claim, the parties apparently assumed that the issue was
still properly before the Court. In such circumstances, we treat
Judith’s request for relief under section 6015(c) as an amendment
to the petition, seeking our review of her entitlement under the
new statute. See Charlton v. Commissioner, supra at ___ (slip
op. at 9-10). We thus consider her claim within the framework of
our traditional deficiency jurisdiction.
As a threshold matter, we note that “All concessions,
including stipulated settlement agreements, are subject to the
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