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deficiency and any additions to tax or penalties for which the
Service alleges the taxpayer is liable.
The 30-day letter gives the taxpayer an opportunity to
dispute the Service’s asserted tax deficiency administratively
and to contest the proposed imposition of any addition to tax or
penalty. The Commissioner usually will issue a notice of
deficiency after the administrative appeal process has been
completed and the case is unagreed, or after the time limit for
pursuing an administrative appeal has expired without taxpayer
action, or if the expiration of the period of limitations for
assessment is about to expire. A taxpayer who agrees to the
proposed deficiency or who voluntarily files an amended return
reflecting the proposed deficiency ordinarily does not receive a
notice of deficiency.
With this background in mind, we must turn to the actual
language of section 6015(e)(1) as amended. Although Congress is
well aware of the words it has used in other sections of the
Internal Revenue Code (the Code) to reflect that the Commissioner
has determined a deficiency and issued a notice of deficiency,
see sec. 6212(a), the words used by Congress in section
6015(e)(1) as amended do not contain any reference to a
determination of a deficiency by the Commissioner. Section
6015(e)(1) refers only to “an individual against whom a
deficiency has been asserted”. It does not require that the
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