Michael Morrissey - Page 15

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            actually equaled 50 percent of the value of the real estate in            
            fee.                                                                      
                 We also disagree with petitioner's assertion that his                
            transfer to the MPP was not a "sale or exchange".  In                     
            Commissioner v. Keystone Consol. Indus., Inc., 508 U.S. at 159,           
            the Supreme Court faced an analogous issue with respect to                
            property that had been transferred to satisfy an employer's               
            obligation to fund a qualified defined benefit plan.  In                  
            holding that the transfer was a sale or exchange subject to the           
            rules of section 4975, the Court noted that the meaning of the            
            term "sale or exchange" was well settled for income tax                   
            purposes to include any transfer of property in satisfaction of           
            a monetary obligation.  Id. at 158-159.  The Court stated that            
            the Congress' use of that term in section 4975 generally                  
            encompassed all "sales or exchanges", whether they be "direct             
            or indirect".  Id. at 159.  The Court, by way of example,                 
            described a situation where a transfer of property to a plan              
            was outside the reach of that term by virtue of an exception              
            prescribed in section 4975(f)(3).  The Court's example covered            
            an employer who transferred unencumbered property to a plan,              
            without satisfaction of an obligation to it.  Id. at 161 n.2.             
            As stated by the Court with respect thereto:  "A transfer of              
            encumbered property, like the transfer of unencumbered property           
            to satisfy an obligation, has the potential to burden a plan,             





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