44
Stevens, J., dissenting
differently from any other secured creditor.13 Its interests are adequately protected by specific statutory provisions governing discharges and priorities. As the Commission on the Bankruptcy Laws of the United States observed, unanimously, in 1973:
"The Commission also recommends that unpaid taxes entitled to priority be reduced from those accruing within three years prior to bankruptcy to those accruing within one year prior to bankruptcy and that the government be given no other priority for taxes in a bankruptcy proceeding (including those secured by a 'tax lien'). Data submitted to the Commission by the Treasury Department establishes that the total amount collected by the Federal Government as a result of all of its liens and priorities in bankruptcy proceedings is insignificant in the total federal budget. It is the view of the Commission that it is unseemly for the Federal Government to insist upon collecting its taxes at the expense of other creditors of the taxpayer, and that the
13 In United States v. Whiting Pools, Inc., 462 U. S. 198, 209 (1983), the Court first held that "the reorganization estate includes property of the debtor that has been seized by a creditor prior to the filing of a petition for reorganization." The Court then explained:
"We see no reason why a different result should obtain when the IRS is the creditor. The Service is bound by § 542(a) to the same extent as any other secured creditor. The Bankruptcy Code expressly states that the term 'entity,' used in § 542(a), includes a governmental unit. § 101(14). See Tr. of Oral Arg. 16. Moreover, Congress carefully considered the effect of the new Bankruptcy Code on tax collection, see generally S. Rep. No. 95-1106 (1978) (Report of Senate Finance Committee), and decided to provide protection to tax collectors, such as the IRS, through grants of enhanced priorities for unsecured tax claims, § 507(a)(6), and by the nondis-charge of tax liabilities, § 523(a)(1). S. Rep. No. 95-989, pp. 14-15 (1978). Tax collectors also enjoy the generally applicable right under § 363(e) to adequate protection for property subject to their liens. Nothing in the Bankruptcy Code or its legislative history indicates that Congress intended a special exception for the tax collector in the form of an exclusion from the estate of property seized to satisfy a tax lien." Ibid.
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