Section 6. Paperwork Reduction Act

The collection of information in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. § 3507) under control number 1545–1967. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection of information displays a valid OMB number.

The collection of information in this announcement is in Section 5, Application Process. This information is required to apply the terms of the settlement and determine the suitable amount of any penalties. Collecting information is required to obtain the benefit described in this announcement. The likely respondents are

attributable to the disclosed transaction.

3. For purposes of this settlement initiative, at the discretion of the Service, a person that received and relied on a written tax opinion with respect to the treatment of the transaction under federal tax law before filing a return affected by the transaction will not pay a penalty on the underpayment attributable to that transaction if ²

a. the tax opinion (i) concluded at a confidence level of at least “more likely than not” (a greater than 50% likelihood) that all significant federal tax issues arising out of the transaction would be resolved in the taxpayer’s favor, and (ii) considered all the relevant facts and did not assume any unreasonable facts; and

b. the tax advisor (i) was not a person described in section 2, paragraph 1 or 2, (ii) was not referred to the taxpayer by a person described in section 2, paragraph 1 or 2, and (iii) did not have a fee arrangement contingent on the successful sustention of all or part of the intended tax benefit.

4. All other applicable penalties and additions to tax will apply.

F. Statute Extensions . Where the period of limitations on assessment of any applicable tax ( e.g., income, excise, and employment taxes) will otherwise expire within 12 months after a person files an Election, the Service will ordinarily request that the person consent to extend the applicable period of limitations. If, after a request by the Service, the person does not consent to extend the applicable period of limitations as requested, the Service will treat that person as having withdrawn from this initiative.