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taxpayers and clearly reflect income for Federal income tax
purposes.” Id. The Treasury Department has never prescribed the
referenced valuation rules.
We proceed to interpret section 475, the provisions of which
we set forth in appendix B.56 These provisions were added to the
Internal Revenue Code by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1993, Pub. L. 103-66, sec. 13223, 107 Stat. 481, effective with
taxable years ended after December 30, 1993.57 We are the first
court to opine upon section 475 in any regard.
56 Petitioner argues, in part, that we should interpret sec.
475 favorably to it because the Treasury Department has failed to
fulfill Congress’s mandate to prescribe regulations interpreting
the valuation requirements of that section. We reject this
argument. In the absence of regulations, we construe the
statutory text in light of all pertinent evidence, textual and
contextual, of its meaning. See Commissioner v. Soliman,
506 U.S. 168, 173 (1993); Crane v. Commissioner, 331 U.S. 1, 6
(1947); Old Colony R. Co. v. Commissioner, 284 U.S. 552, 560
(1932). See also White v. United States, 305 U.S. 281, 292
(1938), where the Supreme Court rejected a similar argument,
stating:
We are not impressed by the argument that, as the
question here decided is doubtful, all doubts should be
resolved in favor of the taxpayer. It is the function
and duty of courts to resolve doubts. We know of no
reason why that function should be abdicated in a tax
case more than in any other * * *
57 Sec. 475 was amended in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997,
Pub. L. 105-34, sec. 1001(b), 111 Stat. 906, to redesignate old
sec. 475(e) as sec. 475(g) and to add new sec. 475(e) and (f) to
allow dealers in commodities and traders in securities and
commodities to elect mark-to-market accounting. That amendment
is not applicable here. Id. sec. 1001(d)(4).
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