- 16 - whether by the petitioner, the Commissioner, or by a third party, alters the type of evidence which may be offered to establish a fact, but the rule does not affect the burden of proving a fact.” Fed. R. Evid. 1004; Malinowski v. Commissioner, 71 T.C. 1120, 1125 (1979). Petitioners do not claim that their tax records were intentionally lost. In the course of the bankruptcy case, they had approximately 11 months to conduct discovery, and any relief that they thought they deserved on account of the absence of their records they could have requested from the bankruptcy court. We see no merit to their claim that they had an inadequate opportunity to challenge the IRS’s proof of claim. C. No Abuse of Discretion In response to their requests for collection due process hearings, petitioners and their counsel were afforded a 2-hour, face-to-face conference with Appeals Officer Powell. Petitioners complain that the conference did not amount to a proper hearing because they were not allowed to raise the underlying liabilities. Since they had no right to raise the underlying liabilities, that complaint is without merit. Petitioners argue that the Appeals Office abused its discretion by issuing the notices of determination while an offer in compromise was pending. Apparently, petitioners did submit an offer in compromise to someone at the IRS, but not to the Appeals Office conducting their collection due process hearing. Moreover, thatPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011