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a taxpayer exhaust administrative remedies. That subsection
provided that if no Appeals conference is made available to a
taxpayer prior to issuance of a notice of deficiency and the
taxpayer does not refuse to participate in an Appeals conference
during docketed status, the taxpayer will be treated as having
exhausted administrative remedies. Accordingly, Rogers was not
based on the regulatory definition of the term “participates” as
contained in sec. 301.7430-1(b)(2), Proced. & Admin. Regs.
The definition of the term “participates” in the (b)(2)
paragraph of the regulation requires that a taxpayer provide the
Appeals officer with information that is relevant at the time of
the conference. Accordingly, the question of whether a taxpayer
has supplied relevant information depends upon the parties’
positions and the factual development of the case at the time of
the Appeals conference. Our decision as to whether there was
“participation” must therefore focus on what information may be
relevant at the time and in the context of an Appeals conference.
In that regard, theories or evidence subsequently developed by
the parties are not necessarily relevant to the controversy as it
existed at the time of the Appeals conference.
To better understand what information may be relevant at an
Appeals conference, we consider the overall purpose or goal of
section 7430 and the specific purpose of an Appeals conference.
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