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impartial since he both conducted the section 6330 hearing and
considered petitioner’s offer in compromise.
As a general rule, a party cannot argue on brief an issue
not raised in the petition. See Rule 331(b)(4) (“Any issue not
raised in the assignments of error shall be deemed to be
conceded.”). Moreover, as stated supra in section III. of this
report, at trial petitioner abandoned all issues raised in the
petition except that Mr. O’Shea erred by prematurely concluding
the hearing. Respondent asks that we reject all of petitioner’s
other arguments as having been either conceded or abandoned. We
accept respondent’s request, except that we do consider
petitioner’s arguments with respect to bias and inflexibility,
since we think that they relate closely to the one issue
(premature conclusion) that petitioner has preserved.
2. Bias
Petitioner argues: Mr. O’Shea “was biased by his belief
that the hearing had to be promptly concluded.” Beside the fact
that Mr. O’Shea set, and stuck to, a deadline of September 2,
2003, for petitioner to submit information necessary for an offer
in compromise, petitioner has shown no facts that would support
his claim of bias. As we made plain supra in section V.B. of
this report, there is no requirement that an Appeals officer wait
a certain amount of time before concluding a section 6330
hearing. Petitioner has failed to show bias.
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