- 66 -
understand how the majority can conclude that respondent abused
his discretion in finding that it was not reasonable for
petitioner to believe that Mr. Wiwi would pay the unpaid tax at
the time she signed the return.
D. Conclusion
The majority has failed to convince us that respondent’s
ultimate finding of fact--that petitioner was not entitled to
equitable relief--was “arbitrary, capricious, clearly unlawful,
or without sound basis in fact or law”; in other words, an abuse
of discretion. See majority op. pp. 13-14.
III. Conclusion
We close by returning to our first point: The scope of our
review of the Commissioner’s denial of section 6015(f) relief
should be limited to the administrative record, since the Tax
Court is not exempt from the ordinary principles of
administrative law that bind other courts reviewing agency
action. Had the majority so limited the scope of its review, and
had it then examined respondent’s denial of relief to petitioner
pursuant to a correct application of the abuse of discretion
standard, to determine whether it was “arbitrary, clearly
unlawful, or without sound basis in fact or law”, we believe that
respondent would have prevailed.
Page: Previous 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011