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treatment of one partner separate from the others requires a
special agreement by that partner.
As the majority states, the intent of TEFRA is to provide a
unified proceeding that will result in consistent treatment of
partnership items to all partners:
4(...continued)
The separateness of a proceeding with respect to a partner
and a proceeding with respect to a partnership is evident from
the legislative history which provides:
A judicial determination of a partner's income tax
liability not resulting from a partnership proceeding
will not bar any adjustment to such liability
attributable to the treatment of partnership items
pursuant to a proceeding under these rules. [H. Conf.
Rept. 97-760, at 610 (1982), 1982-2 C.B. 600, 668.]
See also sec. 6222(c) (if the partner fails to notify the
Secretary of its inconsistent treatment of a partnership item,
the Secretary may make a computational adjustment to conform the
partnership item to the partnership return and may assess
immediately the tax deficiency arising from the adjustment); sec.
301.6222(a)-1T(c), Example (1), Temporary Income Tax Regs., 52
Fed. Reg. 6779 (Mar. 5, 1987) (if the partnership reports income
in one calendar year, the partners are required to report income
in that calendar year).
However, if the partnership did not file a return, i.e., the
partnership is a non-filer, sec. 6229(c)(3) provides that any tax
attributable to a partnership item may be assessed at any time.
Again, note that the secs. 6501 and 6229 provide similar
remedies, but they do so separately.
Implicit in sec. 6229(c) is that the sec. 6229 limitation
period controls the partner-level limitations period with respect
to partnership items. That is, if the partnership-level
limitations period has not expired, then even if the partner-
level limitations period has run, the Commissioner may assess the
tax that is attributable to any partnership item.
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