- 26 - both counts. We do not believe that Cochran abused her discretion by rejecting petitioners’ offer-in-compromise simply because she may have established a due date for submission of information. As a matter of fact, petitioners’ counsel by their own admission acknowledge that Cochran had regularly granted counsel’s repeated requests for extensions made in part because counsel was mired from their acceptance of many of these cases involving other partners of the Hoyt partnerships. Nor do we believe that Cochran abused her discretion by rejecting petitioners’ offer-in-compromise simply because she may not have discussed with petitioners the contents of the notice of determination (and given them a chance to dispute it) before issuing the notice of determination to them. Cf. Fargo v. Commissioner, 447 F.3d at 712-713 (holding that Appeals has no duty to negotiate with a taxpayer before rejecting the taxpayer’s offer-in-compromise). We also disagree with petitioners that Cochran had an affirmative duty to attempt unilaterally to find additional facts in support of their case as soon as she came to the conclusion that their offer-in-compromise should be denied. We hold that Appeals did not abuse its discretion in rejecting petitioners’ $32,000 offer-in-compromise. In so holding, we express no opinion as to the amount of any compromise that petitioners could or should be required to pay, or that respondent is required to accept. The only issue before us isPage: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011