Charles Wendell Harkey, Sr. and Barbara Anne Harkey - Page 12

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          requiring the abatement of interest with respect to the taxable             
          year 1992 or 1993.  See sec. 6404(e).  The fact that respondent             
          assigned another DLN (document locator number) to each of                   
          petitioners’ returns a few months after those returns were filed            
          in 1994 (apparently because they were “balance-due returns”) does           
          not, by any stretch of the imagination, satisfy petitioners’                
          burden of proof.                                                            
               C.  Did Respondent Abuse His Discretion?                               
               At the administrative hearing, there was discussion                    
          concerning a possible installment payment agreement.                        
          Petitioners, however, were not willing to enter into such an                
          agreement because they continued to dispute their underlying                
          liabilities for 1992 and 1993.  For that same reason, respondent            
          was not willing to offer an installment payment agreement as a              
          collection alternative.                                                     
               In Rodriguez v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2003-153, we held             
          that it was not an abuse of discretion for the Commissioner to              
          decline to accept an offer in compromise as a collection                    
          alternative if the taxpayer had not filed all required income tax           
          returns.  Indeed, we stated:                                                
               The decision not to accept the offer in compromise submitted           
               by petitioner on account of her failure to file all required           
               returns was an entirely reasonable exercise of the                     
               Commissioner’s discretion in administering the offer in                
               compromise program.  [Id.]                                             








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