My sister is going to her 50th college reunion soon, and it seems like yesterday I was at her graduation.

So, since it’s getting toward college graduations and reunions, I see The Great Dissenter, a/k/a The Judge Who Writes Like a Human Being and implacable foe of the partitive genitive, His Honor Mark V. Holmes, is hosting his own reunion of familiar faces from my past few years of blogging. It’s all about The Markell Company, Inc., 2014 T. C. Memo. 86, filed 5/13/14.

We have a family PHC, holding a ton of stock with built-in gain (remember the late Helen P. Richmond and her hapless executrix Amanda Zerbey? Well, see my blogpost “Win Your Case” , 2/11/14); we have The Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians and their one-time tribal chairman Leon Dale Bear (“Chair Bear” to Judge Holmes), innocent bystanders (but see my blogpost “Don’t Ambush The Indians”, 4/7/11); and starring in this drama is none other than the Great Immunologist, James (“Little Jim”) Haber, CPA, mixmaster of digital European-style options which produce monumental paper losses.

We get all of Little Jim’s prior appearances here, from Ironbridge to Humboldt Shelby, with glances at Getting Shifty and Immunology.

And there are cameo appearances by James Rogers of Superior Trading fame, and Refco, the options dealer that went belly-up amidst allegations of massive fraud.

Historic Boardwalk Hall has a walk-on role as a non-existent partnership (like the one masterminded by Little Jim), supported by Jimastowlo Oil, LLC.

Little Jim grapples the Fifth Amendment to his soul with hoops of steel, with Judge Holmes’ blessing, but adverse inferences can be used in civil proceedings, and much adversity follows Little Jim’s Constitutional stroll.

The partnerships and maneuverings (with three diagrams to show the wheeling-and-dealing) have but one aim–tax avoidance. No business was done, just a single in-and-out basis-builder, matching long and short to zero out economically, but using the old Section 752 dodge to build basis and cover the built-in gain on the sale of all that stock Grandpa had stashed all those years ago.

Judge Holmes does give retroactive application to Section 1.752-6T, the loophole plugger subsequently made permanent, relying on Section 7805(b)(6) and various court cases, although these don’t uniformly support retroactive application. Moreover, Judge Holmes finds Congress gave Treasury explicit authority to apply the loophole plugger retroactively. For one case not applying the loophole plugger retroactively, see my blogpost “Woodshedding Your Experts – Stobie Creek Part Deux”, 1/10/11

So no partnership, but plenty of tax, and a 40% substantial overvaluation chop.