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The Report of the Senate Finance Committee accompanying the Tax
Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2085, states:
The committee does not intend that this provision be used
routinely to avoid payment of interest; rather, it intends
that the provision be utilized in instances where failure to
abate interest would be widely perceived as grossly unfair.
The interest abatement only applies to the period of time
attributable to the failure to perform the ministerial act.
* * * * * * *
The committee intends that the term “ministerial act”
be limited to nondiscretionary acts where all of the
preliminary prerequisites, such as conferencing and review
by supervisors, have taken place. Thus, a ministerial act
is a procedural action, not a decision in a substantive area
of tax law. For example, a delay in the issuance of a
statutory notice of deficiency after the IRS and the
taxpayer have completed efforts to resolve the matter could
be grounds for abatement of interest. The IRS may define a
ministerial act in regulations. [S. Rept. 99-313, at 208-
209 (1986), 1986-3 C.B. (Vol. 3) 1, 208-209.]
The regulations provide:
The term “ministerial act” means a procedural or mechanical
act that does not involve the exercise of judgment or
discretion, and that occurs during the processing of a
taxpayer's case after all prerequisites to the act, such as
conferences and review by supervisors, have taken place. A
decision concerning the proper application of federal tax
law (or other federal or state law) is not a ministerial
act. [Sec. 301.6404-2T(b)(1), Temporary Proced. & Admin.
Regs., 52 Fed. Reg. 30163 (Aug. 13, 1987).]
While petitioner's original application for abatement
encompasses the deficiency and all the interest due for the 1996
taxable year, his subsequent request relates only to interest,
and at the hearing, petitioner narrowed the scope of his request
for abatement to the period between July 1998 (when he alleges
that he orally requested that the file be sent from the Internal
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Last modified: May 25, 2011