- 13 - Under these interpretative regulations, the Commissioner has allowed an employer such as petitioner to deduct compensation paid to an employee through a transfer of property in the year that the corresponding income is includable in the employee's income if the employer deducts and withholds income tax on the payment under section 3402. See sec. 1.83-6(a)(2), Income Tax Regs.; see also sec. 7805(a) (the Commissioner authorized to "prescribe all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement of this title"). Petitioner does not benefit from these regulations because it did not withhold income tax on any of the payments underlying the claimed deduction. Although petitioner attempts to avoid this result by arguing that these regulations are invalid, we do not agree. The statutory text allows a deduction when the corresponding amount is included in income, and the Commissioner's regulations merely establish a "safe harbor" for concluding that the corresponding amount was included in income. The Commissioner's regulatory implementation of the congressional mandate set forth in section 83(h) is reasonable, which, in turn, means that the regulations are valid. United States v. Vogel Fertilizer Co., 455 U.S. 16, 24 (1982); United States v. Correll, 389 U.S. 299, 307 (1967). The special rule as to the deduction and withholding of payroll taxes was meant to alleviate the "difficult[ies] that a service recipient may have in demonstrating that an amount has actually been included in the service provider's gross income", see T.D. 8599, 1995-2 C.B. 12,Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011