MINOR MEMOS: The IRS branch that processes private letter ruling requests on electric interties said only one ruling request had been received through the end of March . . . .  US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill gave taxpayers several good quotes to use during tax audits.  O’Neill told a Senate appropriations subcommittee in March that “[t]axpayers should be given the benefit of the doubt where there’s a crease in the law put there by Congress.” O’Neill blamed the problem the government has with tax shelters on complicated tax laws. “We wouldn’t have either evasion or avoidance if we did not have 10,000 pages of tax code that it takes a machine to understand” ....  A West Virginia court said in late February that rents paid to lease data processing equipment were exempted from sales tax on grounds that what looked on its face like a lease of equipment was really an agreement to provide services.  Most states collect sales taxes on rents paid to lease equipment, but not on payments for services.  The lease was between two subsidiaries of a bank.  The case is CB&T Operations Company v. Commissioner.