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judgment for respondent’s, both as to the procedures prescribed
by the Secretary pursuant to section 6015(f) and respondent’s
determination of various factual issues in this case.
B. New Standards
Properly applied, abuse of discretion review recognizes that
Congress intended agencies to have considerable leeway in setting
standards. Unless those standards are in some way contrary to
the statute and so constitute “an error of law”, courts should
respect them and not substitute their own. We are bound by the
following rule of deference:
Federal courts must defer to any reasonable
interpretation given to the statute by the agency
charged with its administration, as well as to the
agency’s interpretations and application of its
regulations and policies in carrying out its statutory
duties, unless plainly erroneous.
Wilkins v. Lujan, 995 F.2d 850, 853 (8th Cir. 1993) (citation and
internal quotation marks omitted); see also Citizens Action
League v. Kizer, 887 F.2d 1003 (9th Cir. 1989).
Section 6015(f) instructs the Secretary to prescribe
procedures for exercising his discretion to provide equitable
relief under that section. The Secretary has prescribed the
required procedures in Rev. Proc. 2000-15, 2000-1 C.B. 447.
Section 4 of the revenue procedure is entitled “General
Conditions for Relief”. Section 4.01 thereof lists certain
necessary (“threshold”) conditions for relief; section 4.02 lists
circumstances under which the Secretary will ordinarily grant
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