156
Opinion of the Court
property between a plan and a disqualified person." See § 4975(c)(1)(A).
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is the petitioner here, ruled that respondent's transfers to the Pension Trust of the five truck terminals and the Key West property were sales or exchanges prohibited under § 4975(c)(1)(A). This ruling resulted in determined deficiencies in respondent's first-tier excise tax liability of $749,610 for its fiscal year 1984 and of $482,773 for each of its fiscal years 1983 and 1985-1988, inclusive. The Commissioner also determined that respondent incurred second-tier excise tax liability in the amount of $9,655,454 for its fiscal year 1988.
Respondent timely filed a petition for redetermination with the United States Tax Court. That court, with an un-reviewed opinion on cross-motions for summary judgment, ruled in respondent's favor. 60 TCM 1423 (1990), ¶ 90,628 P-H Memo TC.
The Tax Court acknowledged that "there is a potential for abuse by allowing unencumbered property transfers to plans in satisfaction of minimum funding requirements." Id., at 1424, ¶ 90,628 P-H Memo TC, p. 90-3071. Nonetheless, it did not agree that the transfers in this case constituted sales or exchanges under § 4975. It rejected the Commissioner's attempt to analogize the property transfers to the recognition of income for income tax purposes, for it considered the issue whether a transfer is a prohibited transaction under § 4975 to be "separate and distinct from income tax recognition." Id., at 1425, ¶ 90,628 P-H Memo TC, p. 90-3071.
In drawing this distinction, the Tax Court cited 26 U. S. C. § 4975(f)(3). That section specifically states that a transfer of property "by a disqualified person to a plan shall be treated as a sale or exchange if the property is subject to a mortgage or similar lien." The court observed: "Since section 4975(f)(3) specifically describes certain transfers of real or personal property to a plan by a disqualified person as a sale or exchange for purposes of section 4975, the definitional
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