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treatment standard created by Rev. Rul. 76-28 is the only
standard by which to measure the requirement of section 404(a)(6)
that grace period contributions be "on account of" the relevant
taxable year. We are, convinced, however, that petitioner may
not arbitrarily expand the deductible limit for any taxable year
by the simple expedient of including, in the taxable year's
deduction, contributions based entirely upon hours worked by the
plans's participants in a subsequent year.
Petitioner argues that respondent cannot change her
longstanding administrative practice and apply the change on a
retroactive basis. Respondent replies that the five private
letter rulings, and possibly the TAM, relied on by petitioner
relate to single employer, not multiemployer pension plans. In
the former case, the single employer has flexibility in deciding
how much and when to contribute, since there are no contractual
provisions requiring the single employer to contribute pursuant
to a formula at regular intervals. Petitioner's contributions,
on the other hand, are, by contract, mechanical and predictable.
Whether the private letter rulings, plus the TAM and Rev. Rul.
76-28, rise to the level of "longstanding administrative
practice" is, to say the least, problematical, but in any event,
as the Supreme Court has stated in Dixon v. United States, 381
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