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suggests, Congress intended to limit the scope of the Court’s
equitable recoupment authority to taxes that normally fall within
the Court’s deficiency and/or overpayment jurisdiction, we are
convinced that Congress would have drafted section 6214(b) to say
so in clear and unambiguous terms.
Nor does the legislative history underlying the amendment to
section 6214(b) provide any support for respondent’s position.
To the contrary, S. Rept. 109-336, supra at 97, indicates that
Congress viewed the amendment to section 6214(b) as a means to
provide clarity and simplification for taxpayers and the
Commissioner alike. The literal interpretation of section
6214(b) that petitioners advocate, under which the Court is
authorized to apply the doctrine of equitable recoupment in
respect of all internal revenue taxes, offers clarity and a
meaningful measure of simplification in that both parties can be
confident that the Court may provide a complete remedy for a
given taxable year. In contrast, respondent’s narrow
construction of the provision would add uncertainty to litigation
and create a category of cases in which equitable recoupment
would not be available in the Tax Court.
Respondent’s narrow construction of section 6214(b) is also
inconsistent with the central policy underlying the doctrine of
equitable recoupment; i.e., to prevent an inequitable windfall to
a taxpayer or the Government that would otherwise result from the
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Last modified: March 27, 2008