In Mingo v. Comm’r the 5^th Circuit upheld a Tax Court decision and denied installment sale treatment to the extent the partnership interest sold related to underlying unrealized receivables.  The taxpayer sold its interest in a service partnership for an installment note.  The court denied installment sale treatment to the extent that the purchase price related to customer receivables inside the partnership.  The 5^th Circuit court concluded that if the underlying receivables had been sold directly, they would not have qualified for installment sale treatment.  The court then applied an aggregate treatment to the partnership based on the notion that since the unrealized receivables were so-called “hot assets” under Section 751, the court could then extend Section 751 look-through principles to the installment sale area.  The IRS has made such arguments before, but now the Tax Court and 5^th Circuit agree.  Although there has been some disagreement in the bar with the IRS’s extrapolation of Section 751 principles in this way, the Mingo case gives the IRS something to point to beyond its own rulings.  The case further gave the IRS a win by using the concept of a Section 481 adjustment to push the adjustment through even though the underlying tax year was closed.