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preceding-year-return safe harbor as follows:
This objective of the safe harbor provision -- to
provide a predictable escape from any possible penalty
liability -- would be defeated if penalties for
underpayment of estimated taxes during the year were
based, not on the easily determinable amount reflected
on the preceding year’s return, but instead upon the
ultimate tax liability, possibly determined by adverse
tax audit, a year or so after the tax year for * * *
which the estimated tax installments were paid. * * *
[Id. at 204.]
“Safe harbor” also is an apt description of the identical
preceding-year-return rule applicable to individuals, sec.
6654(d)(1)(B)(ii), and it is an apt description of the rule,
applicable to both corporations and individuals, limiting the
required annual payment of estimated tax to the tax shown on the
return (if one is filed) for the taxable year in question, secs.
6654(d)(1)(B)(i) and 6655(d)(1)(B)(i).
Our decision is consistent with the “objective of the safe
harbor provision” referred to by the Court of Appeals in Evans
Cooperage. Petitioner’s failure to file a return prior to
respondent’s issuance of the notice presents us with a situation
that is the exact opposite of that referred to in Evans
Cooperage, where the filing of returns preceded the audit. Here,
upon issuance of the notice, it is the tax liability determined
by respondent that is the “easily determinable amount” and it is
the return amount that is “possibly determined” in some later
year. In effect, petitioner, by not filing the 1988 return prior
to issuance of the notice, has waived his right to the
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