Hospital Corporation of America and Subsidiaries - Page 24

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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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