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The expansive Senate version provoked responses from the
Department of the Treasury and other representatives of the
executive branch expressing concerns that under the Senate bill a
taxpayer could dispute, in a collection review proceeding, tax
liabilities that had been previously litigated. See Statement of
Administration Policy, Executive Office of the President (Office
of Management and Budget), on H.R. 2676--Internal Revenue Service
Restructuring and Reform Act (Reported by the Senate Committee on
Finance) (May 5, 1998), reprinted in Tax Notes Today, 98 TNT
87-18 (May 6, 1998); Letter from Robert E. Rubin, Secretary of
the Treasury to William Archer, Chairman, Committee on Ways &
Means, U.S. House of Representatives (June 2, 1998), reprinted in
Tax Notes Today, 98 TNT 112-40 (June 11, 1998).
The final version of the legislation, devised in conference,
added the language that a person may challenge the existence or
amount of the underlying liability for any tax period “if such
person did not receive any statutory notice of deficiency for
such tax liability or did not otherwise have an opportunity to
dispute such tax liability.” While there is nothing explicit in
the committee reports to explain the added limitation, it is
reasonable to conclude that the conference committee was
addressing the stated criticisms of allowing taxpayers multiple
opportunities for judicial review of their tax liability. See
Montgomery v. Commissioner, 122 T.C. at 17 (Gale, J.,
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