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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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