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fails to add together the amounts petitioner claims were offered
in the letter. Respondent argues in the alternative that, to the
extent the offer does clearly specify an amount, the amount is
only $12,000.
We find petitioner’s letter of April 27, 2004, to be clear
in its offer to establish petitioner’s liability, including fraud
penalties, for the 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 tax years as
$54,873.24. In his letter, petitioner writes “The taxpayer, as
his qualified offer, agrees to establish as the taxpayer’s
liability (determined without regard to interest) by agreeing to
pay to the United States $12,000 for the tax years 1990, 1991,
1992 and 1993, collectively.” In attempting to allocate this
amount in the next sentence, petitioner refers to this $12,000 as
“the additional liability”. In the very next sentence,
petitioner explains that “This offer is in addition to the
$42,873.24 paid to the United States on or about December 30,
1997 as restitution in the criminal proceedings entitled United
States of America v. James Owen Jondahl (D.C. ND; Case No. 3:97-
CR-9).” The suggestion that this offer lacks clarity by virtue
of the fact that petitioner did not explicitly perform for
respondent the simple calculation of adding the $12,000 to the
$42,873.24 is unpersuasive.
Respondent further argues that if petitioner intended his
offer to be $54,873.24 then he should have allocated that amount
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