As the tax court has explained, “the concept of fair market value has always been part of the warp and woof of our income, estate, and gift tax laws, and concomitantly the necessity of determining the fair market values of numerous assets for equally numerous purposes has always been a vital and unavoidable function of the tax administrative and judicial process.” Nestle Holdings, Inc. v. Comm'r, 94 T.C. 803, 815, 1990 WL 73733 (1990). To be sure, the term “fair market value” appears “in about 200 sections of the Internal Revenue Code ..., and in about 900 sections of the supporting Treasury regulations.”

The Ninth Circuit furthered its explanation by quoting an earlier decision by the Tax Court—“the concept of fair market value has always been part of the warp and woof of our income, estate, and gift tax laws, and ... [thus] the necessity of determining ... fair market values ... for ... numerous purposes has always been a vital and unavoidable function of the tax administrative and judicial process.” Id. (quoting Nestle Holdings, Inc. v. Comm'r, 94 T.C. 803, 815 (1990) (internal quotations omitted)).--------