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A Treasury regulation must be sustained if it "[implements]
the congressional mandate in some reasonable manner." United
States v. Vogel Fertilizer Co., 455 U.S. 16, 24 (1982) (quoting
United States v. Correll, 389 U.S. 299, 307 (1967)). The "issue
is not how the Court itself might construe the statute [to which
the regulation relates] in the first instance, 'but whether there
is any reasonable basis for the resolution embodied in the
Commissioner's Regulation.'" Schaefer v. Commissioner, 105 T.C.
227, 230 (1995) (quoting Fulman v. United States, 434 U.S. 528,
536 (1978)). Normally, "Treasury regulations must be sustained
unless unreasonable and plainly inconsistent with the revenue
statutes". Commissioner v. South Texas Lumber Co., 333 U.S. 496,
501 (1948).
The Code section primarily involved here is section
179(b)(3)(A) and (d)(8), which is directed to the limitations in
the case of partnerships. For purposes here, these limitations
have two sources.
The genesis of section 179 is section 204(a), The Small
Business Tax Revision Act of 1958, Pub. L. 85-866, 72 Stat. 1606,
1676, that provided a deduction for an additional first-year
depreciation. There was a $10,000 ($20,000 for joint returns)
limitation on the cost of the property subject to the additional
depreciation. That statute did not provide any limitation on
partners. Section 179(d)(8), relating to partnership
limitations, first appeared in the Tax Reform Act of 1976, Pub.
L. 94-455, sec. 213(a), 90 Stat. 1525, 1547. The legislative
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