Burrow Trust v. Commissioner

39 T.C. 1080, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 165
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1963
DocketDocket Nos. 88895, 88896, 92964
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 39 T.C. 1080 (Burrow 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
Burrow Trust v. Commissioner, 39 T.C. 1080, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 165 (tax 1963).

Opinion

Dawson, Judge:

The respondent determined deficiencies in income and estate taxes of petitioners as follows:

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BINDINGS OB BAOT.

The stipulated facts are so found and are incorporated herein by this reference.

Mary E. Burrow of Topeka, Kans., executed a declaration of trust on August 7, 1956, transferring certain income-producing properties to the Central National Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka, or its successor corporation, as trustee. After her death J. E. Merriam, L. P. Humphreys, and Esther Shaffer were to serve as cotrustees, hereinafter referred to as individual trustees.

Due to a consolidation in September 1957, of the Central National Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka and the National Bank of Topeka, the First National Bank of Topeka, as successor corporation, became cotrustee, and is hereinafter referred to as corporate trustee. The death of J. E. Merriam on November 6, 1961, necessitated the substitution of F. G. Weidling as an individual trustee.

Pertinent provisions of the trust instrument are summarized as follows:

1. The settlor reserved the right to revoke the trust in its entirety at any time during her lifetime.
2. The corporate trustee was directed to pay the income of the trust to the settlor during her lifetime, preferably quarterly.
3. The voting rights of the stock of Central National Bank and Trust Co., or its successor, comprising a substantial portion of the trust property, were to be exercised by the settlor during her lifetime and by the individual trustees after her death.
4. The corporate trustee was directed to have physical care and custody of all books, papers, securities, investments, or evidences of investments, constituting a part of the trust.
5. The trustees were to receive reasonable compensation for their services, notwithstanding the fact that any of the individual trustees may be officers, directors, or employees of the corporate trustee.
6. After the death of the settlor, the trustees were directed to pay from the corpus of the trust the expenses of the settlor’s last illness, funeral, and burial expenses, and any and all estate, inheritance, and succession taxes.
7. The trustees were directed to make certain specific bequests and distributions of property to named beneficiaries after the settlor’s death.
8. After the performance of the duties described above, the trustees were directed to divide the residue of the trust into equal shares or separate trusts for the benefit of the settlor’s children, Jane Burrow Neilsen and James Randall Burrow II, and to hold such shares in trust for the children.

The settlor and the corporate trustee agreed that the fee of each individual trustee was to equal one-tenth of 1 percent of the reasonable market value of the trust estate per annum, to be charged to the income of the trust. The corporate trustee was to receive an annual fee of one-half of 1 percent of the first $100,000 value of the trust and one-fourth of 1 percent of the remaining value of the trust, to be charged against the corpus of the trust. During the year following the death of the settlor, the corporate trustee was to receive 1 percent of the Federal estate tax value of the trust assets in lieu of the normal annual fee. This fee was to be charged against the corpus of the trust and was to compensate the corporate trustee for the additional services made necessary by the death of the settlor.

The additional services which were performed by the corporate trustee following the death of the settlor included: (a) Preparing and filing the Federal estate tax return, (b) preparing and filing the Kansas State inheritance tax returns, (c) appraising the trust and estate assets which were to 'be included in the estate and inheritance tax returns, (d) dividing the trust after the settlor’s death according to the terms of the trust, (e) consulting with the individual trustees in effecting the sale of bank stock to pay the estate and inheritance taxes, (f) performing accounting services, (g) paying expenses of the trust, (h) distributing specific gifts and bequests to named beneficiaries of the trust, and (i) other similar nonrecurring duties.

The primary duties of the individual trustees were to vote the stock of the Central Rational Bank and Trust Co., to approve the sale of such stock, and to approve various administrative duties of the corporate .trustee.

Considering the size of the trust and the amount of services to be performed, the fees agreed to were reasonable in amount and were in accord with the customary practice in the Topeka area. Kansas law requires only that the fees be reasonable.

Mary E. Burrow, hereinafter sometimes referred to as decedent and settlor, died on October 12, 1956. She left a will dated August 7,1956, in which she left her personal possessions to her children and directed that the remainder of her estate after the payment of debts be added to the Mary E. Burrow Trust to be distributed as provided in the trust instrument. The Central Rational Bank and Trust Co., or its successor, was appointed executor.

The Probate Court of Shawnee County, Kans., granted letters testamentary in the estate of Mary E. Burrow, deceased, on October 19, 1956, to the Central National Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka, succeeded by the First National Bank of Topeka.

The probate estate of Mary E. Burrow amounted to approximately $38,000 which was sufficient to pay all the debts incurred during the decedent’s lifetime. After the payment of debts and specific bequests, the residue of the probate estate was distributed 'to the Mary E. Burrow Trust as provided by the decedent’s will. The First National Bank of Topeka, as executor, administered the probate estate separately from the Mary E. Burrow Trust and received $1,000 as an executor’s fee.

Separate Federal income tax returns were filed for the Mary E. Burrow Trust and the probate estate for the year ended October 31, 195T, with the district director of internal revenue, Wichita, Kans. The assets of the trust were not a part of the decedent’s probate estate but were included in the decedent’s gross estate for estate tax purposes. The gross estate was approximately $2 million. The Federal estate tax return for the estate of Mary E. Burrow was filed with the district director of internal revenue, Wichita, Kans., on January 13, 1958.

Trustees’ fees in the amount of $22,934.79 were deducted as administration expenses by the Mary E. Burrow Trust on its income tax return for 1957 and also by the estate of Mary E. Burrow on its estate tax return. The fees represented payments made by the trust on September 13,1957, to the following:

Central National Bank and Trust Co. of Topeka_$19,112.33
L. P. Humphreys- 1,911.23
Esther Shaffer- 1,911.23
22,934.79

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Burrow Trust v. Commissioner
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Bluebook (online)
39 T.C. 1080, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burrow-trust-v-commissioner-tax-1963.