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Administration (GSA), and was finally retired from GSA on
disability because of his hearing disability. He sought to
exclude from gross income annuity payments thereafter received
from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund. He
contended that the Civil Service disability amount should be
excluded from gross income, regardless of whether the retirement
plan was a military one, so long as the disability pension was
paid for an injury incurred during active service. Id. at 866.
This Court held otherwise, focusing instead on the provisions of
the retirement plan:
No case has previously considered whether section
104(a)(4) can be applied to exclude from income
payments made to persons who retire from nonmilitary
employment. Although the ambiguous wording of section
104(a)(4) provides some superficial support for
petitioner's position, this is overshadowed by the fact
that the Civil Service Retirement Act * * * is not
designed to provide compensation for military injuries.
5 U.S.C. sec. 8331(6) defines "disability" to mean the
total disability for useful and efficient service in
the grade or class of position last occupied by the
employee, because of disease or injury. Under this
provision, the nature or cause of the disability is
irrelevant; all that is taken into consideration is the
employee's ability to perform his or her job. Thus, in
determining eligibility for disability retirement and
the amount of disability annuity payments, no
consideration is given to whether the disease or injury
arose from military service.
Id. at 866-867 (emphasis added); accord French v. Commissioner,
T.C. Memo. 1991-417; cf. Lonestar v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
1984-80.
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