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supporting his request as well as additional information Counsel
had obtained regarding petitioner’s collection file.
At trial, petitioner argued that the following section in an
ICS transcript12 relating to petitioner’s case proved that Mr.
Baustert did not follow established guidelines in making his
request for approval to file the nominee Notice of Federal Tax
Lien:
Reviewed copy of nominee lien approval received during
ICS downtime – control opened to maintain some advisory
record thereof. Unless something was missed during ICS
downtime, RO submitted request directly to counsel
rather than following usual procedures of routing it
through advisory. As such, there was no advisory
review, record, or control. It is unclear why it was
not sent to counsel through advisory. Although it is
acknowledged that advisory review is not required by
the IRM, it has been established practice here in the
absence of extraordinary circumstances.
The hearing officer testified at trial that he reviewed the ICS
transcript in making his determination. He explained that,
although the advisory group normally reviewed the requests to
decide if any additional supporting documentation was required,
collection officers sometimes worked directly with Counsel,
bypassing the advisory review. According to Mr. Penny, the
revenue officer was dealing with another nominee NFTL on property
allegedly owned by petitioner in another location, so the revenue
officer had already established a direct path to Counsel. We
12An ICS transcript is a case file transcript that is
maintained by the IRS to document case file actions taken by IRS
personnel.
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