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petitioner contends.3 Following respondent’s lead, the majority
opinion and concurring opinion largely frame that issue in terms
of whether the judicial review provisions of the Administrative
Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. secs. 701-706 (2000), apply to
proceedings in this Court. That characterization is somewhat
overbroad, as should be evident from the following introductory
discussions of the record rule and the APA. Whether couched in
terms of the record rule or the APA, the dispositive inquiry in
this case is whether Congress intended our review of respondent’s
section 6015(f) determinations to be effected by means of de novo
proceedings.
2. Section 6015(f)
Section 6015(f) provides that, if a joint filer does not
qualify for relief from joint and several liability under section
6015(b) or (c), the Secretary may, under procedures prescribed by
him, grant such relief on equitable grounds. We have
jurisdiction to review the Commissioner’s decisions under section
6015(e). Fernandez v. Commissioner, 114 T.C. 324, 330-331
(2000). We have previously held that we review such decisions
for abuse of discretion. E.g., Jonson v. Commissioner, 118 T.C.
106, 125 (2002). We adopted that standard on the basis of
3 Judge Colvin, the trier of fact in this case, conducted a
trial de novo with the understanding that the subsequent
resolution of the record rule’s application would determine
whether he could properly consider the evidence adduced at trial
in resolving the sec. 6015(f) issue.
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