- 10 - 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,Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011