- 19 - income of $2,000 for taxable year 2002, because this portion of the closing agreement pertains to nonpartnership items. In contrast W may claim relief from joint and several liability as to the disallowed losses and accuracy-related penalty attributable to Partnership B for taxable year 2002 or any subsequent year(s). This is because this portion of the closing agreement pertains to partnership and affected items and was entered into at a time when W was a party to the pending partnership-level proceeding regarding Partnership B. Consequently, W never had the opportunity to raise the innocent spouse defense in the course of that TEFRA partnership proceeding. (See � 1.6015-5(b)(5) relating to premature claims). [Emphasis added.] We fail to see why the same rationale does not apply to a closing agreement entered into before the effective date of section 6015. A spouse who enters into such an agreement likewise never had the opportunity to raise a claim under section 6015 before, or at the time of, her signing the closing agreement. Although we recognize that the final regulations were not effective for purposes of petitioner’s request for relief, we believe the reason underlying the exceptions in section 1.6015- 1(c)(2) and(e), Income Tax Regs., supports a conclusion that a closing agreement entered into before the effective date of section 6015 does not preclude petitioner from asserting relief under that section.16 16We do not decide in this Opinion the effect of sec. 6015 on a closing agreement entered into after the effective date of those rules. However, we note that the Secretary has issued final regulations under sec. 6015 which provide that, in general, a requesting spouse is not entitled to relief from joint and several liability for any tax year for which the requesting (continued...)Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Next
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