- 33 -
aid its domestic business activities, except as the issuer of a
private-label credit card or as the recipient of large deposits
of funds that are not needed immediately. Those are insufficient
services for us to conclude that WFNNB was “carrying on the
banking business” as Congress used that phrase in section
956(b)(2)(A).
2. Dividend Equivalence
As originally enacted, in 1962, the repatriation provision
classified as U.S. property virtually all investments by a
controlled foreign corporation of its earnings in the United
States. There was little, if any, reason for Congress to include
a related-party restriction in the exception for section 956
deposits.11 By 1976, however, the tax writing committees of
11 From the enactment of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956
(BHCA), Pub. L. 91-607, ch. 240, 70 Stat. 133, currently codified
at 12 U.S.C. secs. 1841-1850 (1994), until its amendment by the
Bank Holding Company Act Amendments of 1970 (BHCA 1970
Amendments), Pub. L. 91-607, 84 Stat. 1760, a bank holding
company was defined as a company having control over two or more
banks. The BHCA would, thus, not have impeded a nonbanking
company, such as petitioner, from owning a single bank.
Nevertheless, petitioner has failed to show us that, in 1962
(when subpart F was enacted), that possibility was any more than
theoretical. See S. Rept. 91-1084 (1970), 1970 U.S.C.C.A.N.,
p. 5519, 5522 (accompanying H.R. 6778, which was enacted as BHCA
1970 Amendments, and describing "the theoretical freedom of a
one-bank holding company to engage in any business, or acquire
anything it desires (subject to antitrust laws)"; Conf. Rept. 91-
1747 (1970), 1970 U.S.C.C.A.N., p. 5561, 5562 (also accompanying
H.R. 6778 and stating that, “[i]n the late 1960's”, nonbank
corporations began acquiring one bank, “thus mixing banking and
nonbanking in complete contravention of the purpose of both
(continued...)
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