- 37 -
where the agency adjudication is not subject to APA formal
adjudication provisions “such as tax assessments * * * not made
upon an administrative hearing and record, [where] contests may
involve a trial of the facts in the Tax Court”); H. Rept. 1980,
79th Cong., 2d Sess. (1946), reprinted in Administrative
Procedure Act Legislative History, 1944-46, at 279 (1946) (same).
The mere fact that judicial review is for abuse of
discretion in a spousal relief case arising under section 6015(f)
does not trigger application of the APA record rule or preclude
this Court from conducting a de novo trial. As the majority
opinion correctly notes, this Court has a long tradition of
providing trials when reviewing the Commissioner’s determinations
under an abuse of discretion standard. For example, when
reviewing for abuse of discretion the Commissioner’s refusal to
abate interest under section 6404, this Court has consistently
conducted trials. See, e.g., Goettee v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
2003-43; Jean v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2002-256; Jacobs v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-123.
In sum, the APA does not disturb or supersede this Court’s
longstanding de novo judicial review procedures for cases
involving spousal relief under section 6015. This is not to say,
however, that this Court could not or should not, in appropriate
circumstances, borrow principles of judicial review embodied in
the APA. Indeed, on occasion this Court has done so. For
Page: Previous 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011