"What Apple is doing is pretty mainstream, " said accounting expert Robert Willens, in an interview.

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And a Heinz win is likely, opines Lehman Brothers tax analyst Robert Willens.

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It worked, Willens says, because without a sale, there was no capital loss.

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But Willens notes other corporations used such aggressive maneuvers in the 1990s, too.

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Robert Willens, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, said his M.

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The Treasury, Willens said, is unlikely to rewrite the rules now and even less likely to do so for just one set of victims.

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"People harvest tax losses almost reflexively, " Mr. Willens says.

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It's just larger, '' Willens said.

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Meanwhile--perhaps preparing for a rash of bankruptcies--the IRS last month issued a final rule squelching another ploy that Wall Street tax consultant Robert Willens says had been widely used by those in the know: "abandoning" securities and claiming an ordinary loss, deductible against ordinary income.

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