Archbishop Samuel Trust v. Commissioner

36 T.C. 641, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 30, 1961
DocketDocket Nos. 79946, 79947
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 36 T.C. 641 (Archbishop Samuel Trust v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Archbishop Samuel Trust v. Commissioner, 36 T.C. 641, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118 (tax 1961).

Opinion

Scott, Judge:

The respondent determined deficiencies in income tax against Archbishop Samuel Trust in the amounts of $61,879.74, $818.86, and $239.14 for the years 1954, 1955, and 1956, respectively, and an addition to the tax under section 6653(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 in the amount of $3,093.99 for the year 1954. The respondent also determined deficiencies of $61,818.33 and $157.64 for the years 1954 and 1955 in the income tax of petitioner Athanasius Y. Samuel and additions to the tax for 1954 under sections 294(d)

(1)(A) and 294(d) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 and section 6653 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 in the amounts of $5,563.65, $3,709.10, and $3,090.92, respectively.

Some of the issues raised by the pleadings have been disposed of by agreement between the parties, leaving for our decision the following:

(1) Whether the transfer by Athanasius Y. Samuel of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Archbishop Samuel Trust constituted a sale of the scrolls to the trust in return for annuity payments as contended by petitioners or a transfer to the trust with provision for trust distributions to a beneficiary as determined by respondent.

(2) Whether the gain on the sale of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1954 represented a long-term capital gain of the Archbishop Samuel Trust or of Athanasius Y. Samuel as the grantor treated as the owner, respondent having made inconsistent determination in the two deficiency notices taxing this long-term capital gain to each petitioner.

(3) If the capital gain from the sale of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that of the Archbishop Samuel Trust, whether this petitioner is a tax-exempt charitable organization as contended by petitioner.

(4) Whether respondent failed to include in his determination of the basis of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the purpose of computing the gain on the sale thereof all the cost of acquisition of the scrolls.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Petitioner Archbishop Samuel Trust is a trust with its principal office at 9 Piedmont Street, Worcester, Massachusetts. The fiduciary income tax returns of the Archbishop Samuel Trust (hereinafter referred to as the trust) for the years 1954, 1955, and 1956 were filed with the district director of internal revenue for the district of Massachusetts.

Petitioner Athanasius Y. Samuel, an archbishop and head of the Syrian Church of Antioch in the United States and Canada (hereinafter referred to as Samuel) is an individual with residence at 293 Hamilton Place, Hackensack, New Jersey. Samuel’s income tax returns for the years 1954 and 1955 were filed with the district director of internal revenue at Newark, New Jersey.

The Syrian Church of Antioch is one of the oldest of the Christian churches and at present has about a million believers, and 800 churches in Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, North America, South America, and India.

Samuel discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls through Bedouin tribesmen and other persons. He brought the scrolls to the United States about January 29, 1949. The scrolls were thereafter placed on display in various parts of the country, including the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., Duke University of Durham, North Carolina, the University of Chicago at Chicago, Illinois, and the Worcester Art Museum at Worcester, Massachusetts.

On November 30,1951, Samuel transferred the Dead Sea Scrolls to the trust. The trust instrument provided in part as follows:

I, ATHANASIUS YESHUE SAMUEL, ARCHBISHOP, THE METROPOLITAN OE JERUSALEM AND TRANSJORDAN, of West New York, New Jersey (hereinafter called the “settlor”), hereby transfer the so-called “Dead Sea Scrolls” * * * to the settlor and Charles Manoog of Worcester, Massachusetts, (hereinafter called the “trustees”), and at the request of the settlor, the trustees agree to hold said property and all additions thereto, in trust, as follows:
$ * * * * # *
SECOND: During the settlor’s lifetime the net income and 90% of the principal shall be disposed of as he directs in writing from time to time. Any net income not thus disposed of shall be added to principal at the end of each calendar year, and any principal not thus disposed of at the time of the settlor’s death shall be added to principal.
THIRD; On death of the settlor, the remaining trust property shall be disposed of as follows:
(a) The trustees shall pay to the settlor’s mother, Khatoun Malkey Samuel, of Homs, Syria, during her lifetime such sum of money monthly if possible, as in their uncontrolled discretion will be sufficient for her care, maintenance and support in the style she is now accustomed to, but not more than $2500. a year, such sum to be paid out of income, if there is income, otherwise out of principal if at the time principal consists of something other than the Dead 'Sea Scrolls;
(b) The trustees shall use income or principal in their uncontrolled discretion for any or all of the following purposes, viz.:
(i) to establish scholarships at educational institutions not run for profit to be used to pay for further education of Syrian Orthodox monks and priests or for education of other worthy Syrian Orthodox persons;
(ii) to provide capital funds or operating expenses for St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem;
(iii) to help Syrian Theological students, particularly those studying to become priests or monks in the Syriac Orthodox of Antioch faith, and
(iv) to print for free distribution Syriac Orthodox; of Antioch faith liturgy, religious, historical and Syriac school books;
provided however, that the trustees shall not use either income or principal for the purposes of paragraph Third (h) unless at the time of such use or setting aside for such use the trustees are reasonably satisfied that the remaining assets of the trust are reasonably sufficient to enable full compliance with paragraph Third (a).
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FIFTH: The settlor shall have the right at any time or times by a writing, or writings, signed by the settlor, to amend this trust so as to reduce the amount of income or principal to which he has become entitled and to make any other amendment thereof and to revoke the same.

The trust instrument further provided for broad powers to the trustees to deal with the trust corpus, initially the Dead Sea Scrolls, either to retain the scrolls or sell them, to buy, hold, sell, exchange, and lease all types of real and personal property, and to allocate to income and capital all trust receipts and trust expenditures.

On October 7, 1952, the trust was amended. The instrument of amendment provided in part as follows:

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Archbishop Samuel Trust v. Commissioner
36 T.C. 641 (U.S. Tax Court, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
36 T.C. 641, 1961 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/archbishop-samuel-trust-v-commissioner-tax-1961.