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CHIECHI, J., dissenting: I agree with the majority
opinion’s rejection of respondent’s argument that the APA
controls the proceedings in the instant case. However, that
conclusion does not require the majority opinion to hold, as it
does, nor does it logically lead to holdings (1) that, in
determining whether to grant relief under section 6015(f), the
Court may consider matters raised at trial that petitioner did
not raise with respondent’s Appeals Office and (2) that
petitioner is entitled to equitable relief under section 6015(f).
I dissent from those holdings and disagree with the rationales
that the majority opinion offers in support of them.
With respect to the majority opinion’s holding that, in
determining whether to grant relief under section 6015(f), the
Court may consider matters raised at trial that petitioner did
not raise with respondent’s Appeals Office, nothing in section
6015 requires the Court, in exercising its jurisdiction under
section 6015(e)(1)(A) “to determine the appropriate relief
available to” petitioner under section 6015(f), to consider
matters raised at trial that petitioner did not raise with
respondent’s Appeals Office. To consider such matters in
determining whether respondent abused respondent’s discretion in
denying relief under section 6015(f) has the effect of vitiating
the abuse-of-discretion standard that the Court held in Butler v.
Commissioner, 114 T.C. 276, 292 (2000), and its progeny is
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