David Bruce Billings - Page 8




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          Commissioner should take “into account all the facts and                    
          circumstances,” which means that his determination rarely depends           
          on any one factor.  See sec. 6015(f); Rev. Proc. 2000-15, sec.              
          4.03, 2000-1 C.B. at 448.  To guide IRS employees in exercising             
          their discretion, the Commissioner has issued revenue procedures            
          that list the factors they should consider.2  We also use the               
          revenue procedure when we determine whether the Commissioner                
          abused his discretion.  See, e.g., Washington v. Commissioner,              
          120 T.C. 137, 147-52 (2003); Jonson v. Commissioner, 118 T.C. at            
          125-26.                                                                     
               The revenue procedure begins with a list of seven conditions           
          for equitable relief that a taxpayer must meet.  Rev. Proc. 2000-           
          15, sec. 4.01, 2000-1 C.B. at 448.  Both parties agree that David           
          met all of these threshold conditions.  The procedure also has a            
          safe harbor--three conditions that, if met, will ordinarily                 
          trigger a grant of relief.  Rev. Proc. 2000-15, sec. 4.02, 2000-1           
          C.B. at 448.  David does not qualify for this safe harbor,                  
          though, because one of the three conditions is that a requesting            
          spouse be divorced or separated from the nonrequesting spouse,              



               2 The procedure in effect when David filed his request for             
          relief was Revenue Procedure 2000-15, 2000-1 C.B. at 447.  It has           
          since been replaced by Revenue Procedure 2003-61, 2003-2 C.B. at            
          296, but the new procedure applies only to requests for relief              
          filed on or after November 1, 2003 or those pending on November             
          1, 2003, for which no preliminary determination letter has been             
          issued as of November 1, 2003.  Rev. Proc. 2003-61, sec. 7, 2003-           
          2 C.B. at 299.                                                              





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