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General Explanation of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, at
922-923 (J. Comm. Print 1987) (General Explanation).]
When Congress directs that regulations be promulgated to
carry out a statutory purpose, the fact that regulations are not
forthcoming cannot be a basis for thwarting the legislative
objective. It is well established that the absence of
regulations is not an acceptable basis for refusing to apply the
substantive provisions of a section of the Internal Revenue Code.
See, e.g., Estate of Neumann v. Commissioner, 106 T.C. 216, 221
(1996); H Enters. Intl., Inc. v. Commissioner, 105 T.C. 71, 82
(1995); First Chicago Corp. v. Commissioner, 88 T.C. 663, 669
(1987), affd. 842 F.2d 180 (7th Cir. 1988); Occidental Petroleum
Corp. v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 819, 829 (1984). In Estate of
Neumann v. Commissioner, supra at 221, for instance, we
determined that regulations were not a prerequisite to applying
the generation-skipping tax to certain transfers when the
relevant statutory language (sec. 7701(f)) provided: "'The
Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary or
appropriate to prevent the avoidance of those provisions of this
title'". We concluded that Congress had not given the Secretary
the power to determine section 2663's application; i.e., whether
the general rule of section 2663 applied to cases such as the
taxpayer's. Rather, we explained that Congress had simply
authorized the Secretary to provide rules on how the section
should apply. Id.
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