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742, 757 (1970), affd. 445 F.2d 985 (10th Cir. 1971), to follow
the opinions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit in Ward v. Commissioner, 907 F.2d 517 (5th Cir. 1990),
revg. 92 T.C. 949 (1989), and Mulder v. Commissioner, 855 F.2d
208 (5th Cir. 1988), revg. T.C. Memo. 1987-363. According to the
estate, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in Ward
and Mulder that notices of deficiency mailed to an address other
than the taxpayer’s last known address were invalid. Respondent
disagrees. Respondent contends that Ward and Mulder are
distinguishable from this case and that, therefore, we are not
obligated to treat the opinions as precedent under Golsen. We
agree.
In Golsen v. Commissioner, supra at 757, we held that we
must “follow a Court of Appeals decision which is squarely in
point where appeal from our decision lies to that Court of
Appeals and to that court alone.” We shall assume arguendo for
purposes of this analysis, that an appeal from our decision in
this case would lie in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit. See sec. 7482(b)(1). We shall focus our analysis on
whether the opinions of the Court of Appeals in Ward and Mulder
are “squarely in point”. A comparison of the undisputed facts in
this case with the facts found by the Court of Appeals in Ward
and Mulder confirms that the cases are distinguishable.
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