Cir

This case involves the taxation of retirement payments made to Jay Sewards, a former employee of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Like all County employees who retire with a service-connected disability, Sewards was entitled to receive a disability pension equal to one-half his previous salary. Because Sewards had completed 34 years of service, however, he received an additional amount to bring his pension up to what he would have received as a service pension. The question presented in this case is whether that additional amount is taxable under the Internal Revenue Code. Sewards argues that the entire amount of the retirement allowance may be excluded from taxation because it is a worker’s compensation pension. The Tax Court rejected Sewards’s argument, concluding that the portion of Sewards’s retirement allowance exceeding what he would have received solely based on disability is subject to taxation. Se-wards now appeals that ruling. We have jurisdiction under 26 U.S.C. § 7482 (a)(1), and we affirm the judgment of the Tax Court.

I.

The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) manages retirement assets' and payments for retired Los…