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Circuit, to which an appeal of the instant case would lie absent
stipulation of the parties to the contrary, has stated that where
"Congress has not directly spoken to the precise question at
issue, the [Chevron] rule * * * should be applied". Peoples Fed.
Sav. & Loan Association v. Commissioner, 948 F.2d 289, 299 (6th
Cir. 1991), revg. T.C. Memo. 1990-129. "If there are gaps left
by silence or ambiguity of the statutes in question, agencies may
fill the gaps with necessary rules, providing they are
reasonable, and courts should not interfere with this process."
Id. at 300.
Petitioners maintain that the phrase "on the basis of
experience" is not defined in the statute and that Congress did
not delegate to the Commissioner the authority to define the
phrase. Petitioners assert further that no definition is
necessary because the phrase is not ambiguous and must be
interpreted in accordance with its plain, everyday meaning. We
conclude, however, that the phrase is ambiguous.
The words in a revenue act generally should be interpreted
in their ordinary, everyday sense. Commissioner v. Soliman, 506
U.S. 168, 174 (1993). Webster's II New Riverside University
Dictionary (1984) defines "experience" as "An event or series of
events participated in" or "The totality of such events in the
past of an individual or group." We do not find in that
definition a clear mechanism for determining how a taxpayer's bad
debt experience will be utilized to calculate the uncollectible
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