-28-
dividends received. The Commissioner denied the deductions
reported on those returns.
Section 23 of the Revenue Act of 1928, 45 Stat. 799, and the
Revenue Act of 1932, 47 Stat. 179, allowed the taxpayer to deduct
from its gross income any dividend received from a domestic
corporation. The Commissioner argued that notwithstanding this
law, the phrase in section 233 of the 1928 and 1932 Revenue Acts
that conditioned the allowance of deductions on the filing of
returns “in the manner prescribed in this title” meant that
deductions were allowable to a foreign corporation only if it
filed its return before the time specified in section 235 of the
1928 and 1932 Revenue Acts. Under section 235 of the 1928 and
1932 Revenue Acts, the taxpayer’s returns had to be filed by May
30, 1933 and 1934, respectively, in order to be timely. The
Commissioner argued more specifically that Congress intended that
the word “manner” be construed broadly as including a timeliness
requirement or, in other words, a reference to the timely filing
requirements found elsewhere in the applicable revenue acts.
The Board, in a reviewed opinion with no recorded dissent,
disagreed with the Coommissioner’s interpretation of the relevant
text and held that the taxpayer was entitled to its deductions
even though its returns had been filed untimely. See Anglo-Am.
Direct Tea Trading Co. v. Commissioner, supra at 716. The Board
reached this holding by carefully examining Congress’s use in the
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