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Although the Eighth Circuit in Bartman interchangeably used
terms that are not synonymous in the Federal tax law, after a
careful reading of the Eighth Circuit’s opinion in Bartman (and
its opinion in Sjodin that relied on Bartman), I believe that the
Eighth Circuit in Bartman (and in Sjodin) construed the language
“a deficiency has been asserted” that appears in the phrase
“against whom a deficiency has been asserted” to mean “a
deficiency has been determined” by the Commissioner in a notice
of deficiency.19 In reaching that conclusion, the Eighth Circuit
19Before the Eighth Circuit in Bartman began to use
interchangeably various terms that have different meanings in the
Federal tax law, see supra note 17, the Eighth Circuit stated:
Congress created the United States Tax Court “to
provide taxpayers with a means of challenging
assessments made by the Commissioner without first
having to pay the alleged deficiency. Without such a
forum, taxpayers would have to pay the asserted
deficiency and then initiate a suit in federal district
court for a refund.” Samuels, Kramer & Co. v. Comm'r,
930 F.2d 975, 979 (2d Cir. 1991). As an Article I
court, the tax court is a court of “strictly limited
jurisdiction.” Kelley v. Comm'r, 45 F.3d 348, 351 (9th
Cir. 1995). A notice of deficiency issued by the IRS
pursuant to � 6212 is the taxpayer's jurisdictional
“ticket to the Tax Court.” Bokum v. Comm'r, 992 F.2d
1136, 1139 (11th Cir. 1993) (quoting Stoecklin v.
Comm'r, 865 F.2d 1221, 1224 (11th Cir. 1989)); Spector
v. Comm'r, 790 F.2d 51, 52 (8th Cir. 1986) (per curiam)
(citing Laing v. United States, 423 U.S. 161, 165, 96
S.Ct. 473, 46 L.Ed.2d 416 n. 4 (1976), and holding that
“the determination of a deficiency and the issue of a
notice of deficiency is an absolute precondition to tax
court jurisdiction”). Accordingly, the IRC provides
that the tax court has jurisdiction over petitions for
review from determinations regarding the availability
of � 6015 relief only where a deficiency has been
(continued...)
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