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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since been replaced by Revenue Procedure 2003-61, 2003-2 C.B. at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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