Robert H. and Judith A. Golden - Page 7




                                        - 7 -                                         
          available to the individual under section 6015(b) or (c) and it             
          would be inequitable to hold the individual liable for the tax              
          liability.4  Petitioner bears the burden of proving that                    
          respondent’s denial of her claim was an abuse of respondent’s               
          discretion.  See Washington v. Commissioner, 120 T.C. 137, 146              
          (2003); Cheshire v. Commissioner, 115 T.C. 183, 198 (2000).  In             
          order to prevail, petitioner must demonstrate that respondent               
          exercised his discretion arbitrarily, capriciously, or without              
          sound basis in fact or law when he denied her the equitable                 
          relief.  See Jonson v. Commissioner, 118 T.C. 106, 125 (2002),              
          affd. 353 F.3d 1181 (10th Cir. 2003).                                       
               Before the Commissioner will consider a taxpayer’s request             
          for relief under section 6015(f), the taxpayer must satisfy all             
          seven threshold conditions listed in Rev. Proc. 2003-61, sec.               
          4.01, 2003-2 C.B. 296, 297.5  These conditions are as follows:              
          (1) The requesting spouse filed a joint return for the taxable              


               4 This Court has held that our determination of whether a              
          taxpayer is entitled to relief under sec. 6015(f) “is made in a             
          trial de novo and is not limited to matter contained in                     
          respondent’s administrative record”.  See Ewing v. Commissioner,            
          122 T.C. 32, 44 (2004), vacated 439 F.3d 1009 (9th Cir. 2006).              
          That decision was vacated for lack of jurisdiction.  We need not            
          and do not decide here whether our review of respondent’s denial            
          of relief under sec. 6015(f) is limited to the administrative               
          record because our holding would remain the same in any event.              
               5 Although the deficiencies in tax arose in years before the           
          revenue procedure’s effective date of Nov. 1, 2003, this revenue            
          procedure is applicable to petitioner’s case as her request for             
          relief was made after Nov. 1, 2003.                                         






Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  Next 

Last modified: November 10, 2007