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legislative intent for section 83, the text of section 83(h) is
unambiguous. As stated in section 83(h), an employer who
transfers property to an employee as compensation for services
rendered to it may generally deduct "an amount equal to the
amount included * * * in the gross income of the person who
performed such services * * * [and the] deduction shall be
allowed for the taxable year of * * * [the employer] in which or
with which ends the taxable year in which such amount is included
in the * * * [employee's] gross income". Given the clarity of
this text, our inquiry starts and ends with the statutory text,
and we apply the plain and common meaning of that text. TVA v.
Hill, 437 U.S. 153 (1978); United States v. American Trucking
Associations, Inc., 310 U.S. 534, 543-544 (1940); see also
Connecticut Natl. Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 253-254 (1992).
The statutory prerequisite to petitioner's deduction under
section 83(h) is that the corresponding amount must be "included"
in its employees' income, and, given the fact that petitioner's
employees did not include any of the subject income in their 1988
incomes, we conclude that petitioner is not entitled to a
corresponding deduction for that year.
We recognize that Congress' insistence that an amount be
included in an employee's income as a precursor to an employer's
deduction under section 83(h) may present difficulties to some
employers attempting to ascertain whether their employees
included an amount in income. We decline to second-guess the
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