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commenced with the filing of a petition is supported by Rule
20(a), which states that "A case is commenced in the Court by
filing a petition with the Court to redetermine a deficiency set
forth in a notice of deficiency issued by the Commissioner".
In enacting and amending section 7430, Congress has
consistently made its legislation applicable to "proceedings
commenced" after a particular date. As discussed above, in
applying those effective date provisions we have consistently
interpreted "proceedings commenced" to mean the date on which the
taxpayer's petition was filed. We presume that if our
interpretation were not what Congress had intended, Congress
would have used different language in drafting the effective date
provisions in TBR2.
Additional guidance for deciding when "proceedings" are
commenced under TBR2 comes from the meaning of the word
"proceeding" as it is used throughout section 7430. In this
regard, it is reasonable to assume that Congress intended to give
such word the same meaning in the effective date provisions of
TBR2 as such word is given elsewhere in section 7430. This
provides further support for our conclusion that a "proceeding"
is commenced upon the filing of a petition.
For example, section 7430(a) provides:
(a) IN GENERAL.--In any administrative or court
proceeding which is brought by or against the United
States in connection with the determination,
collection, or refund of any tax, interest, or penalty
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