Marianne Hopkins - Page 16

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          They have a similar preclusive effect, and the policy reasons for           
          giving final and conclusive effect to a closing agreement and a             
          prior judgment of a court are also similar.12  Indeed, the Court            
          of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Hopkins v. United States (In            
          re Hopkins), 146 F.3d at 733 n.2, analogized the effect of a                
          closing agreement to res judicata.  See also Katz v. United                 
          States, 43 AFTR 2d 79-1124, 79-1 USTC par. 9332 (D. Mass. 1979).            
               Given the similarities in the purpose of a closing agreement           
          and the doctrine of res judicata, we cannot conclude any logical            
          reason to afford section 6015 relief in the case of a prior                 
          judgment involving section 6013(e) and deny relief in the case of           
          a closing agreement entered into before the effective date of               
          section 6015.  In both situations, the taxpayer-spouse did not              
          have an opportunity to raise a claim for relief under section               
          6015.  We do not perceive Congress’s failure to include                     
          specifically an exception with respect to closing agreements to             

               11(...continued)                                                       
          could have been offered and received to sustain or defeat the               
          claim.  Commissioner v. Sunnen, 333 U.S. 591, 597 (1948); Calcutt           
          v. Commissioner, 91 T.C. 14, 21 (1988).  The doctrine applies to            
          judgments even where the Court’s final decision was based on an             
          agreement of the parties.  Trent v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.                
          2002-285 (citing United States v. Bryant, 15 F.3d 756, 758 (8th             
          Cir. 1994)).                                                                
               12The purpose of a closing agreement is to once and for all            
          terminate and dispose of tax controversies.  States Steamship Co.           
          v. IRS, 683 F.2d 1282, 1284 (9th Cir. 1982).  Similarly, the                
          doctrine of res judicata has the “dual purpose of protecting                
          litigants from the burden of relitigating an identical issue and            
          of promoting judicial economy by preventing unnecessary or                  
          redundant litigation.”  Meier v. Commissioner, supra at 282.                




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