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over the 12-month period between consecutive anniversaries of the
employees' initial dates of employment.
It is true for the General Plan that the granting of leave
entitlement is conditioned on the performance of services during
the 12 consecutive months preceding the date of grant (January
1). Nevertheless, as petitioner concedes, despite the employee's
eligibility to take vested and nonvested leave after January 1,
"the amount of the Leave Entitlement is based on the next
anniversary of the employee's date of hire." As such, the leave
entitlement is partially attributable to services performed after
the end of the tax year. Thus, while an employee may have had to
work the 12 months before January 1 to qualify for any vacation
benefits, the extent of the benefits received upon satisfying
that precondition hinged upon the years of service he was
expected to complete on his next anniversary date. As evidence
of this, vacation pay benefits are calculated using an employee's
rate of pay at the time the vacation is actually taken, rather
than the rate of pay at the end of the taxable year.
Furthermore, petitioner's own vacation plan brochures used the
term "earned" in the same manner as respondent does here.
2. The Star Markets Plan and Acme Markets Plans
That vacation pay benefits are partially based on services
performed after the end of the relevant taxable year is even more
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