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date of levy, until the levy is released pursuant to section
6343. Sec. 301.6331-1(b)(1), Proced. & Admin. Regs.12
Section 6331(e) does not specify the types of remuneration
that are covered by the term “salary or wages”. The applicable
regulations provide, however, that the term “salary or wages”
includes “compensation for services paid in the form of fees,
commissions, bonuses, and similar items.” Sec. 301.6331-1(b)(1),
Proced. & Admin. Regs. The regulations provide no further
explanation or illustration of these “similar items” of
compensation and do not explicitly address whether the term
“salary or wages” includes severance pay. Thus, the language of
section 6331(e) and the regulations interpreting that Code
section are ambiguous as to whether the term “salary or wages”
includes severance pay.13
12 Sec. 6334(a)(9) exempts from levy certain amounts payable
to or received by an individual as salary or wages for personal
services.
13 The legislative history provides little illumination as
to whether severance pay should be considered “salary or wages”
for this purpose. Before 1976, a levy extended only to
obligations that existed at the time of levy. S. Rept. 94-938,
at 388 (1976), 1976-3 C.B. (Vol. 3) 49, 426. Consequently, the
Commissioner was required to make successive levies in cases
involving salaries and wages. S. Conf. Rept. 94-1236, at 489-490
(1976), 1976-3 C.B. (Vol. 3) 807, 893-894; see also United States
v. Long Island Drug Co., 115 F.2d 983 (2d Cir. 1940). In 1976,
sec. 6331(e) was added to the Code by the Tax Reform Act of 1976,
Pub. L. 94-455, sec. 1209, 90 Stat. 1709, to provide that “a levy
on salary or wages of a taxpayer is to be continuous from the
date the levy is first made until the tax liability with respect
to which it is made is satisfied or becomes unenforceable because
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