"thomas" writes:

This is not true in the case of the federal tax. I saw it clearly on one
IRS pub, that if you filed tax incorrectly based on a response from an IRS
agent, you will not be charged the penalty, even if you have to pay the
right amount later.

The Internal Revenue Code Section 6404(f) gives the IRS the authority to
abate any portion of a penalty or addition to tax caused by erroneous advice
"furnished to you in writing by an officer or employee of the IRS... ."
See Form 843 at
http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/page/0,,id%3D10626,00.html
where it says in part:
````begin quote``````
The IRS will abate the penalty or addition to tax only if:

1. You reasonably relied on the written advice,
2. The written advice was in response to a specific written request you
made for advice, and
3. The penalty or addition to tax did not result from your failure to
provide the IRS with adequate or accurate information.
`````end quote```````

Reasonable reliance and provision of adequate or accurate information for
the answer are points the IRS is not willing to concede in all
circumstances.


Applying the same principle here, you **may** be right that I may still need
to pay a license fee if I get caught. But I won't be fined $10000, given
that I have the print-out of the official FCC email.

I think you are correct that you won't be fined the max. Having a print out
of the email _may_ not get you off the hook, though. I don't do FCC work,
so I don't know their procedures for fines. Applying the principles of
abatement of penalties under the IRS to excusing payment of fines under the
FCC is a bad thing.


We need common sense

There is no common sense.

other than "certificates or professionals" on what is
good and bad to do. The legal and policy systems are based on common sense
eventually.

Not in my experience.
--
Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed
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