- 17 - is his (or her) "principal place of employment", rather than his “residence”. See Mitchell v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 578 (1980); Kroll v. Commissioner, 49 T.C. 557 (1968). We believe that the authorities under section 162 do not undermine our conclusion that “home” requires a residential connection for purposes of section 131. It is a fundamental policy of Federal income tax law that a taxpayer should not be entitled to a deduction for “personal” expenses, such as the ordinary expenses of everyday living. This policy is evidenced by section 262(a), which states that "Except as otherwise expressly provided * * * no deduction shall be allowed for personal, living, or family expenses.” The interpretation of “home” to mean "principal place of business" for purposes of section 162(a)(2) has been based upon this policy. See Kroll v. Commissioner, supra at 562. By contrast, we do not ascertain any legislative intent underlying section 131--or any policy of the statute as a whole-- that either permits or requires us to depart from the general rule that our interpretation be governed by the plain meaning of the statutory language.14 To the extent we are able to determine 14 See United States v. Ron Pair Enter., Inc., 489 U.S. 235, 242 (1989) (quoting Griffin v. Oceanic Contractors, Inc., 458 U.S. 564, 571 (1982)): “The plain meaning of legislation should be conclusive, except in the `rare cases [in which] the literal application of a statute will produce a result demonstrably at odds with the intentions of its drafters’”; see also United States v. American Trucking Associations, Inc., 310 U.S. 534, 543-544 (1940).Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
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