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proposals. For instance, having found that petitioners have
excess monthly income of $2,732 per month, the Appeals officer
concluded that petitioners’ offers to pay $750 per month and
$1,000 per month (and ostensibly their offer to pay $1,200 per
month, although the Appeals officer’s reasons for rejecting this
offer are not explicitly documented in the record) would not be
in the best interests of either petitioners or the Government,
reasoning that, in light of Richard’s age and health and other
factors, petitioners and the Government both would be better off
if the liabilities were paid off sooner rather than later. If,
however, as respondent now asserts, petitioners could not afford
to pay the lesser amounts that they had offered, then it would
not appear to serve either petitioners’ or the Government’s
interests to require petitioners to pay the much higher amount of
$2,700 per month, as the Appeals Office insisted.15
15 In addition, the Appeals officer indicated that
petitioners’ payment proposals would require extending the
collection statute expiration date to at least the year 2014,
whereas if petitioners accepted the Appeals officer’s offer of a
$2,700 per month installment agreement, the tax liabilities could
be paid in full by 2007. The record does not reflect the basis
for the Appeals officer’s conclusion that accepting petitioners’
installment proposals would require extending the collection
statute expiration date to 2014, or to what extent this
conclusion was meant to apply to petitioners’ offer to pay $1,200
per month (which is not expressly addressed in the Appeals
officer’s letters or in the Notice of Determination). Simple
math shows that petitioners’ proposal to pay $1,200 per month
would result in total payments of $72,000 over 5 years.
Considering that petitioners’ unpaid tax liabilities for 1999 and
2000 (after taking into account respondent’s concession of the
sec. 6651(a)(1) addition to tax for 1999, but without taking into
(continued...)
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