- 17 -
carry minimal weight. We think this is especially the case where
the attempt to use the record of legislative action, upon which
petitioner relies, is directed to turning a legislative silence
into an inferred relief from the overriding rule of section
6601(a) that interest is due on taxes owed to the Government.
Our view in this regard is reinforced by the fact that when the
rule of no reduction in computing an underpayment by virtue of a
carryback of excess foreign taxes was enacted in 1997, see supra
p. 12, the legislative history makes clear that it was intended
to overrule the decision of the Court of Federal Claims in Fluor
Corp. & Affiliates v. United States, 35 Fed. Cl. 520 (1996),
which allowed a foreign tax carryback to reduce an underpayment
for purposes of computing interest, and that the Congress
believed that the rule should be the same for both underpayments
and overpayments. See H. Conf. Rept. 105-220, 575-576 (1997); S.
Rept. 105-33, 178-179 (1997); H. Rept. 105-148, 551-552 (1997).6
The committee reports specifically comment that no inference is
to be drawn under prior law as to the proper computation of
interest on an underpayment when there is a carryback of excess
foreign taxes.
One final element in the more than 50 years of history is
involved in resolving the principal issue before us. Petitioner
6 The 1997 legislation was enacted before Fluor Corp. &
Affiliates v. United States, 126 F.3d 1397 (1997), revg. 35
Fed.Cl. 520 (1996).
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