- 12 - such prejudice exists, it is of respondent’s own making. Any such prejudice, however, is speculative, premised as it is on the supposed tax consequences in a year not before us of a legal determination that we decline to reach. The only year before us is 1994, and we confine our determinations to that year. See Christensen v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-254, affd. without published opinion 142 F.3d 442 (9th Cir. 1998). Moreover, petitioners’ receipt argument is based on the application of section 1031 and respondent’s regulations thereunder–-the same section upon which the parties have based their positions from the outset. See Ware v. Commissioner, supra. In invoking the application of these mandatory provisions of the section 1031 regulations, petitioners appeal to the correct application of the law on the basis of the record presented. Neither party has suggested that the record contains insufficient facts to permit us to dispose of the case on the grounds of petitioners’ alternative argument. We conclude that the record is sufficient for this purpose and that we may properly decide this case on the grounds raised in petitioners’ alternative argument.4 4 We are mindful that in Chase v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 874, 883 (1989), this Court rejected the taxpayers’ alternative argument, raised for the first time on brief, that if sec. 1031(a) were inapplicable to the transaction in question, then they should be allowed to elect installment sale treatment under former sec. 453. The Court based its holding partly on the (continued...)Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next
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