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disagreement that the figures shown are in accordance with the
findings and conclusions of the Court.” Rule 155(a), Tax Court
Rules of Practice and Procedure.
That’s what the estate and the Commissioner did here.
Counsel for the estate signed the agreed decision documents based
on the agreed computations, aware that the line item marked
“overpayment” did not reflect unpaid interest. This is not
surprising: Rule 155 governs all post-opinion computations
(including computations of deficiency), and over time the IRS has
developed an almost-unbroken custom of using Rule 155 to reach
agreement on the amount of tax (rather than tax plus interest)
owed. In fact, if interest computations are shown, they are to
be labeled “for information only,” Internal Revenue Manual
8.17.3.2.3 Applying Credits and Payments (2001), which is exactly
what the parties did here. See Form 3623, Statement of Account
Sched. 3. We then typically review any resulting disputes about
the amount of tax owed under Rule 155(b) and disputes about the
interest computations under Rule 261.
In this case, the estate, through counsel, had the
opportunity to review the statement of account that the
Commissioner prepared. This document clearly shows that
interest and tax were to be considered and treated separately,
that “overpayment” meant overpayment of tax only and “interest”
included only interest assessed after the Court’s initial
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