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the Secretary’s prescription in Rev. Proc. 2000-15, supra, of the
conditions required for relief under section 6015(f).
C. Commissioner’s Judgment
Moreover, we fail to see how the abuse of discretion
standard has any force in connection with the majority’s review
of respondent’s fact findings. We are principally concerned by
the majority’s failure to defer to respondent’s findings on
perhaps the two most important facts that the majority cites in
favor of relief--the supposed economic hardship petitioner would
suffer were relief not granted, and her supposed lack of
knowledge that her husband would not pay his 1995 tax liability
under the terms of an installment agreement.
With respect to economic hardship, the majority contradicts
respondent’s finding that petitioner had enough assets and income
from which to pay the unpaid tax for 1995 and that she failed to
show she would suffer economic hardship if relief were denied.
Among the facts that the majority finds are: (1) In 2002,
petitioner received wages of $79,000, (2) she owned a house in
which, at least in 2002, she had equity of $33,000, (3) at the
time of trial, she had $13,500 in a savings account, and (4) at
the time of trial, she owned a 401(k) retirement account of
undetermined amount. Certainly, she had expenses in caring for
Mr. Wiwi, but the majority does not tell us what they are. Based
on the majority’s findings, it appears that the 1995 unpaid tax
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