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running of interest on a tax deficiency if respondent failed to
make notice and demand on the taxpayer within 30 days of the
taxpayer’s filing of a waiver of restrictions on assessment) only
suspended interest on a tax deficiency, not on the interest that
had accrued on the underlying tax deficiency before the beginning
of the suspension period.5
The above examples apparently persuade petitioners that when
Congress wants overpayment interest treated the same as
overpayments of tax, it knows how to explicitly so provide.
Certainly, the language of section 6621(a)(1) could be
clearer. Congress could have made explicit in the statutory
language what respondent argues and what we today hold -- by
expressly providing in the flush language of section 6621(a)(1)
language to the effect that the reduced GATT rate, if triggered,
would apply to any December 31, 1994, overpayment interest
balance.
Congress also could have made explicit in the statutory
language what petitioners argue -- by expressly providing in the
flush language of section 6621(a)(1) the GATT rate (rather than
substituting in section 6621(a)(1)(B) the GATT rate for the
regular rate), by leaving the regular rate in section
6621(a)(1)(B), and by providing language to the effect that the
5 Congress later changed the interpretation set forth in
Rev. Proc. 87-43, 1987-2 C.B. 590, by amending sec. 6601(c) to
refer explicitly to accrued interest.
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