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to sustain the imputation of interest income, the Tax Court
should have either ordered the payment of refunds to the related
corporations or allowed Continental to offset their overpayments
under the doctrine of equitable recoupment. See id.
Faced with these facts, the Court of Appeals disposed of
Continental’s recoupment claim with the following statement:
“the conclusion that the 1969 Tax Reform Act [establishing the
Tax Court as an Article I court] did not grant the Tax Court
equitable jurisdiction is inescapable. The courts that have
addressed the issue are in agreement without [sic] conclusion
that the Tax Court still does not possess jurisdiction over
equitable claims.” Id. at 84.
We, however, find Continental Equities, Inc. v.
Commissioner, supra, an insufficient basis upon which to
predicate an application of the Golsen rule. Despite the broad
language employed by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,
three additional considerations render us unable to make the
requisite conclusion that reversal by the Court of Appeals for
the Eleventh Circuit would be inevitable if we were to sanction
equitable recoupment relief in the case at bar. These
considerations include the lack of factual similarity, the
lengthy interim of time and ensuing developments regarding Tax
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