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the “entire” building be leased by the taxpayer to qualify for
ITC. Respondent acknowledges that his argument that the
provision implicitly contains such a requirement has been
rejected by both the District Court for the Western District of
Washington and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in
Airborne Freight Corp. v. United States, 78 AFTR 2d 96-6272, 96-2
USTC par. 50,552 (W.D. Wash. 1996), affd. in part and revd. in
part 153 F.3d 967 (9th Cir. 1998). On this point, the Court of
Appeals stated: “There is also no requirement [in TRA section
204(a)(7)] that the whole building be leased.” 153 F.3d at 970.
As the Court of Appeals indicated, the difficulty with the
Government’s argument is that the word “entire” was not written
into the language of TRA section 204(a)(7). Id. For the same
reason, we also decline to accept this implied restriction as
part of the statute in order to restrict its application.
We must next decide whether Two Pershing Square was Payless’
“world headquarters”. There is no dispute that Two Pershing
Square was Payless’ corporate headquarters. What is in dispute
is whether Payless’ international activities were sufficient to
qualify its corporate headquarters as a “world headquarters”.
The term “world headquarters” is not defined in the relevant
TRA provisions, nor is it defined in the Code. When a word is
undefined in a statute, it is a fundamental canon of statutory
construction that it will be interpreted as taking its ordinary,
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