Cite as: 536 U. S. 238 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
Finally, of course, the tension with Congress's admonition that the IRS not "threaten to audit any taxpayer in an attempt to coerce the taxpayer" into participating in TRAC, 112 Stat. 755, will be eliminated. If the employer is liable only after an individual employee's delinquency has been calculated, the use of mass assessments to force an employer, in self-defense, to institute TRAC will simply vanish.
Thus, the context establishes that a singular reading is the one that makes sense by eliminating the eccentricities entailed by the aggregate reading, some of which seem unfair to employer taxpayers. Of course, this means that the problem of underreporting tips will be harder to solve, but it seems clear that Congress did not mean to solve it by allowing the IRS to use its assessment power to shift the problem to employers. I would therefore affirm the judgment of the Ninth Circuit.
265
Page: Index Previous 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28Last modified: October 4, 2007