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exception to this rule. Section 72(t)(2)(E), added to the Code
by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, Pub. L. 105-34, sec. 203(a),
111 Stat. 809, provides:
(E) Distributions from individual retirement
plans for higher education expenses.--Distributions to
an individual from an individual retirement plan to the
extent such distributions do not exceed the qualified
higher education expenses (as defined in paragraph (7))
of the taxpayer for the taxable year. * * *
Petitioner has the burden of proving the applicability of section
72(t)(2)(E). See Matthews v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 351, 361-362
(1989), affd. 907 F.2d 1173 (D.C. Cir. 1990).
Given respondent’s concessions, we concern ourselves only
with the question of whether the distributions not used for
petitioner’s qualified higher education expenses for 2001 fall
within the exception of section 72(t)(2)(E). According to
petitioner, all of her distributions (inclusive of the disputed
distributions) are within the exception because her total
distributions were less than her total qualified higher education
expenses. Respondent argues that none of the disputed
distributions fall within the exception. As respondent sees it,
a literal reading of section 72(t)(2)(E) requires that the
distributions and qualified higher education expenses be in the
same year.
We agree with respondent. Because the statute is not
unescapably ambiguous, we construe it according to its plain
meaning. Allen v. Commissioner, 118 T.C. 1, 7 (2002). Section
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