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hearing, the “taxpayer may nevertheless request an administrative
hearing with Appeals, which is referred to herein as a
‘equivalent hearing.’” An equivalent hearing (like the section
6330 hearing) is held with Appeals, and the Appeals officer
considers the same issues which he or she would have considered
had the equivalent hearing been a section 6330 hearing. Sec.
301.6330-1(i)(1), Proced. & Admin. Regs. The Appeals officer
generally follows the same procedures at an equivalent hearing
which he or she would have followed had the equivalent hearing
been a section 6330 hearing. Id. The Appeals officer concludes
an equivalent hearing by issuing a decision letter, as opposed to
a notice of determination. The decision letter contains all of
the information required by section 301.6330-1(e)(3), Q&A-E8,
Proced. & Admin. Regs., to be included in a notice of
determination but for the fact that the decision letter
ordinarily states in regard to most issues that a taxpayer may
not seek judicial review of the decision. In general, the
Commissioner’s decision letter issued as a consequence of an
equivalent hearing is not a “determination” for purposes of
section 6330 and therefore does not confer jurisdiction on this
Court. Nelson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2002-264; Lopez v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2001-228. However, a decision letter
issued as a result of an equivalent hearing when a taxpayer was
entitled to, but not given, a section 6330 hearing may constitute
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Last modified: November 10, 2007