Edward W. Clough - Page 13




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         upon a hearing officer by section 6330(c)(1) is mandatory.  The              
         hearing officer’s obligation to obtain verification that                     
         applicable legal and administrative procedures have been met                 
         attaches whenever a taxpayer has made a timely request for a                 
         hearing.  See sec. 6330(b)(1) (“If [a] person requests a hearing             
         under subsection (a)(3)(B), such hearing shall be held by the                
         Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals.”).  When a taxpayer              
         makes a timely request for a section 6330 hearing, the hearing               
         must be offered, and it must be conducted in accordance with                 
         section 6330(c).                                                             
              We examine the record to decide whether the hearing officer             
         complied with section 6330(c)(1).  In the notice of                          
         determination, the Appeals Office refers petitioner to an                    
         attached statement which “shows, in detail, the matters we                   
         considered at your Appeals hearing and our conclusions about                 
         them” and concludes that the “Issuance of the Final Notice and               
         the proposed levy action are fully sustained.”  In the attachment            
         to the notice of determination, the hearing officer states that              
         she did not verify whether petitioner received a statutory notice            
         of deficiency for 2000.8  In the hearing officer’s activity                  
         record, which was introduced as an exhibit by respondent, the                
         hearing officer made the following entry for June 14, 2005:  “Per            

               8 The Form 4340 for 2000 contains no reference to a notice             
          of deficiency being issued for that year, and the record does not           
          contain a copy of a notice of deficiency for 2000.                          





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