Trans City Life Insurance Company, an Arizona Corporation - Page 40

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          violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the               
          U.S. Constitution because it does not set forth an ascertainable            
          standard sufficient to alert taxpayers as to the section’s reach.           
          Petitioner points to the term "significant tax avoidance effect",           
          and argues that the term is too vague to be interpreted without             
          regulations.                                                                
               We disagree with petitioner's claim that section 845(b),               
          without regulations, is unconstitutionally vague.  The                      
          Constitution does not require that the Commissioner prescribe               
          regulations for section 845(b).  See SEC v. Chenery Corp.,                  
          332 U.S. 194, 201-203 (1947); Columbia Broadcasting Sys. v.                 
          United States, 316 U.S. 407, 425 (1942).  In the absence of                 
          regulations, the statutory text may be interpreted in light of              
          all the pertinent evidence, textual and contextual, of its                  
          meaning.  See Commissioner v. Soliman, 506 U.S. 168, 173 (1993);            
          Crane v. Commissioner, 331 U.S. 1, 6 (1947); Old Colony R. Co. v.           
          Commissioner, 284 U.S. 552, 560 (1932).  Although it is true,               
          as petitioner points out, that the Congress anticipated that                
          regulations would be issued under section 845(b), see                       
          H. Conf. Rept. 98-861, at 1064-1065 (1984), 1984-3 C.B.                     
          (Vol. 2) 1, 318-319, it is not true, as petitioner would have us            
          hold, that section 845(b) requires regulations in order to be               
          effective.  We find nothing in the statutory text, or in its                
          legislative history, that conditions the section's effectiveness            
          on the issuance of regulations.  See Estate of Neumann v.                   
          Commissioner, 106 T.C.     (1996); H. Enters. Intl., Inc.,                  





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