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assessed tax and interest against them. The taxpayers then
commenced the refund suits in District Court, contending that the
assessments were barred by the statute of limitations. Id. at
153-154.
The Court of Appeals held that the District Courts lacked
jurisdiction to decide the statute of limitations issue because
it was a partnership item. Id. at 157. Under TEFRA, the
treatment of all partnership items must be determined at the
partnership level. Sec. 6221. Accordingly, the District Courts
could not decide the statute of limitations issue in a partner-
level proceeding. Weiner v. United States, supra at 157. In
reaching its conclusion, the Court of Appeals stated that the
Commissioner has “three years from the later of (1) the date a
partnership return is due, or (2) the date the partnership return
is filed, to issue an FPAA.” Id. at 154-155 (citing section
6229(a)).
On its face, Weiner might suggest that the Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit views the assessment period under section
6229 as independent of the period provided in section 6501. The
Court of Appeals in Weiner, however, did not mention section 6501
or discuss any of the cases which hold that sections 6229 and
6501 establish alternative assessment periods. Furthermore,
because the Court of Appeals concluded that the statute of
limitations issue was a partnership item, the result would have
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