- 16 -
while a transfer of property that is neither encumbered nor
satisfies a debt presents far less potential for causing loss
to the plan." Id. at 162.
Contrary to petitioner's assertion, the Court's decision
in Keystone governs our decision here. Petitioner owed the
Plans money which they had lent to him, and he transferred the
real estate to the MPP in payment of his debt to it. Under the
Court's holding in Keystone, the fact that petitioner's
transfer to the MPP was in repayment of his debt is enough to
categorize the transfer as a "sale or exchange" for purposes of
section 4975(c)(1)(A). Petitioner's reliance on our decisions
in Wood and Keystone to support a contrary result is misguided.
As the Supreme Court recently stated:
When this Court applies a rule of federal law to the
parties before it, that rule is the controlling
interpretation of federal law and must be given full
retroactive effect in all cases still open on direct
review and as to all events, regardless of whether
such events predate or postdate our announcement of
the rule. [Harper v. Virginia Dept. of Taxation,
509 U.S. 86, 97 (1993).]
On the basis of the Supreme Court's opinion in Commissioner v.
Keystone Consol. Indus., Inc., 508 U.S. 152 (1993), we sustain
respondent's determination that petitioner is liable for excise
taxes under section 4975(a).
As to respondent's determination under section 4975(b),
petitioner argues that this determination is wrong because "the
tremendous appreciation in the subject real estate since the
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