- 12 - Moreover, in 2002, Mr. Jacob advised petitioner that his 1995 tax liability had been resolved when in fact he had done nothing to resolve the underlying tax liability and knew that the matter was set for a collection due process hearing. While this deception in 2002 does not directly show that petitioner was prejudiced by Mr. Jacob’s conduct (or lack thereof) in the period during which petitioner had the opportunity to dispute the underlying liability, it does demonstrate that Mr. Jacob was not forthright in handling petitioner’s affairs and confirms that Mr. Jacob realized that he had an obligation to act on the matter sooner. Under all of these circumstances, respondent’s argument relying on petitioner’s knowledge imputed from others is insufficient to show that petitioner had an opportunity to dispute the 1995 liability. Petitioner trusted and relied exclusively on Mr. Jacob to handle matters before the IRS while Mr. Jacob kept information from petitioner and was intentionally not representing petitioner’s interest. Accordingly, petitioner did not otherwise have an opportunity to dispute the 1995 liability. III. Conclusion Respondent has not met his burden of showing that petitioner received the notice of deficiency or otherwise had the opportunity to dispute the tax liability. Thus, petitioner isPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
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