Raymond and Cynthia Turner-Simmons - Page 7

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          any payments in excess of those credited to their account by                
          respondent.                                                                 
          III.  Discussion                                                            
               While petitioners claim that they raised the                           
          adjustments at the section 6330 hearing, respondent’s record                
          of what occurred at the hearing states that the only issue                  
          petitioners raised was the amount petitioners had paid.                     
          Petitioners have failed to convince us that they raised the                 
          adjustments during the section 6330 hearing.  Also, they                    
          have failed to convince us that, as they claimed at trial,                  
          they were coerced into signing the Form 4549-CG.4  At trial,                

               4  If a taxpayer signs a Form 4549-CG under duress or                  
          coercion, the waivers contained therein of the taxpayer’s rights            
          to contest the deficiency are invalid.  Zapara v. Commissioner,             
          124 T.C. __, __  (2005) (slip op. at 10).  In Zapara, we held:              
          “[A] taxpayer who has signed a Form 4549-CG waiving his right to            
          challenge the proposed assessments should be deemed to have had             
          an opportunity to dispute his tax liabilities and is thereby                
          precluded from challenging those liabilities.”  Id.  Previously,            
          in Aguirre v. Commissioner, 117 T.C. 324, 327 (2001), we held               
          that, by signing a Form 4549-CG, the taxpayers “expressly waived            
          the opportunity to obtain prepayment judicial review of their tax           
          liability for those years.”  As reported above, sec.                        
          6330(c)(2)(B) provides that the taxpayer may contest the                    
          existence or amount of the underlying tax liability at a sec.               
          6330 hearing if the taxpayer did not receive a statutory notice             
          of deficiency with respect to the underlying tax liability or did           
          not otherwise have an opportunity to dispute that liability.  It            
          is unclear from the two cases whether a taxpayer who signs a Form           
          4549-CG following an examination of his return loses his right to           
          raise the underlying tax liability in a subsequent sec. 6330                
          hearing because (1) he waived his right to administrative or                
          judicial consideration of the underlying liability by choosing              
          not to receive a statutory notice of deficiency or (2) the                  
          examination preceding execution of the Form 4549-CG constituted             
                                                        (continued...)                




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