Cite as: 506 U. S. 523 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
The Ninth Circuit's rejection in Kelley v. Commissioner, 877 F. 2d 756 (1989), of the view adopted by the Commissioner was prompted in part by a concern to avoid unfairly
tions. Thus, for example, the period of limitation on assessment and collection of any corporate tax found to be due upon a subsequent determination that the corporation was not entitled to the benefits of subchapter S, will run from the date of filing of the return required under the new section 6037." S. Rep. No. 1983, 85th Cong., 2d Sess., 226 (1958).
Although the passage would seem to support the Commissioner's view, petitioner, following the reasoning of the Ninth Circuit in Kelley v. Commissioner, 877 F. 2d 756 (1989), maintains that the phrase "for example" necessarily implies that the Senate also had in mind the present case. This implication is hardly necessary: The phrase just as easily could have been meant to avoid foreclosing other applications of § 6037(a) to corporate returns. Indeed, had "for example" been omitted, the Commissioner could now rely on this passage to argue that the period for assessing capital gains taxes under 26 U. S. C. § 1374 is not controlled by § 6037(a), but is instead governed by the filing date of a shareholder's return or some other triggering event. Likewise, in the absence of the phrase, it could be argued that, because the legislative history refers exclusively to a case in which taxes are assessed against a corporation that erroneously claims Subchapter S status, the period in which penalties may be assessed against the corporation should not be governed by § 6037(a).
The Commissioner claims additional support in the Senate Report accompanying the 1982 amendments to Subchapter S, which states in relevant part:
"Under present law, a taxpayer's individual tax liability is determined in proceedings between the Internal Revenue Service and the individual whose tax liability is in dispute. Thus, any issues involving the income or deductions of a subchapter S corporation are determined separately in . . . proceedings involving the individual shareholder whose tax liability is affected. Statutes of limitations apply at the individual level, based on the returns filed by the individual. The filing by the corporation of its return does not affect the statute of limitations applicable to the shareholders." S. Rep. No. 97-640, p. 25 (1982). This passage is of little value to either side. While the views of a Congress engaged in the amendment of existing law as to the intent behind that law are "entitled to significant weight," Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp. v. Shell Oil Co., 444 U. S. 572, 596 (1980), in this instance, the Report's account of "present law" may have been colored, if not wholly determined, by the Tax Court, which had already adopted the view espoused by the
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