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the year (or period) to which the unpaid tax relates, as
respondent contends, but extends to facts and issues in
nondetermination years where they are relevant to computing the
unpaid tax.
In interpreting the scope of section 6330(c)(2), we note
first that the legislative history indicates that Congress
intended a broad construction of the issues that a taxpayer was
entitled to raise under that section. "In general, any issue
that is relevant to the appropriateness of the proposed
collection against the taxpayer can be raised at the pre-levy
hearing." H. Conf. Rept. 105-599, at 265 (1998), 1998-3 C.B.
747, 1019.
Second, considering the terms of the statute in their
ordinary meaning, a "relevant issue relating to the unpaid tax or
the proposed levy" surely includes a claim, such as the one here,
that the "unpaid tax" has in fact been satisfied by a remittance
that the Commissioner improperly applied elsewhere. Both section
6331, which empowers the Commissioner to impose a levy, and
section 6330, which requires the Commissioner to afford a hearing
before proceeding with a levy and provides our jurisdiction to
review his determination to proceed with a levy, contemplate an
"unpaid tax". Secs. 6330(a)(1), (3)(A), (b)(2) and (3),
(c)(2)(A), 6331(d)(1) (emphasis added). Since an "unpaid tax" is
the sine qua non of the Commissioner's authority to levy, we
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