David Bruce Billings - Page 57

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          wife.  Petitioner discovered the understatement after the joint             
          return was filed.  On the advice of counsel, petitioner and his             
          wife filed an amended return for 1999 that reported the                     
          previously unreported embezzlement income of petitioner’s wife              
          and calculated an additional income tax liability attributable to           
          the previously unreported embezzlement income.  That additional             
          tax liability was not paid when petitioner and his wife filed the           
          amended return, nor has it been paid to date.                               
               Although respondent was under no legal obligation to do so,            
          respondent processed the amended return1 and, without issuing a             
          notice of deficiency, assessed2 the additional tax liability                
          reported on the amended return.  Subsequently, petitioner                   
          submitted a second Form 8857, Request for Innocent Spouse Relief,           
          which respondent denied.3  Petitioner then filed a petition in              
          this Court seeking a review of respondent’s determination.  It is           
          our jurisdiction over this petition that the Court’s Opinion                
          concludes is nonexistent.                                                   


               1See, e.g., Badaracco v. Commissioner, 464 U.S. 386 (1984).            
               2Assessment is a technical term in the tax field.  It is               
          generally used to describe the formal act of recording on the               
          records of the Internal Revenue Service a tax liability that has            
          been reported on a tax return, sec. 6201(a)(1), or that                     
          otherwise has become final and/or assessable, sec. 6213(b), (c),            
          and (d).  See sec. 6203.                                                    
               3Petitioner filed his initial Form 8857 when he filed his              
          amended return.  However, respondent did not process that                   
          request.  A copy of the initial Form 8857 is not in the record.             





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