Carleton v. Commissioner

37 B.T.A. 66, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1087
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 1938
DocketDocket No. 82787.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 37 B.T.A. 66 (Carleton v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carleton v. Commissioner, 37 B.T.A. 66, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1087 (bta 1938).

Opinion

[68]*68OPINION.

Black:

The following provisions of the Revenue Act of 1926, as amended, are applicable to this proceeding:

Sec. 302. The value of the gross estate of the decedent shall be determined by including the value at the time of his death of all property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, wherever situated—
(a) To the extent of the interest therein of the decedent at the time of his death. * * *
(g) To the extent of the amount receivable by the executor as insurance under policies taken out by the decedent upon his own life; and to the extent of the excess over $40,000 of the amount receivable by all other beneficiaries as insurance under policies taken out by the decedent upon his own life.

The Treasury Department, in construing paragraph (g) above quoted, has promulgated article 26 of Regulations 80 (1934), which reads as follows:

Akt. 26. Insurance in favor of the estate. — The provision requiring the inclusion in the gross estate of all insurance receivable by the executor, without any exemption, applies to policies made payable to the decedent’s estate or his executor or administrator, and all insurance which is in fact receivable by, or for the benefit of, the estate. It includes insurance taken out to provide funds to meet the estate tax, and any other taxes or charges which are enforceable against the estate. The manner in which the policy is drawn is immaterial so long as there is an obligation, legally binding upon the beneficiary, to use the proceeds in payment of such taxes or charges. * * *

It should be kept in mind at the outset that decedent reserved such rights and control over the policies of insurance which were payable to the trustee as to make the proceeds of such policies includable as a [69]*69part of decedent’s gross estate under section 302 (g), above quoted. What these reservations were is not shown in the record and that is unimportant because the parties are in agreement that the proceeds are includable under section 302 (g). The only controversy is whether the entire amount of the policies should be included without the application of the $40,000 exemption, as respondent contends, or whether the insurance policies payable to the trustee were payable to “other beneficiaries” within the meaning of paragraph (g) of section 302 of the Revenue Act of 1926 and decedent’s estate is entitled to the benefit of the full $40,000 exemption which the statute allows, as petitioner contends.

It is petitioner’s position that under the laws of Massachusetts the proceeds of these policies were payable to a trustee for individuals and were not for the benefit of the estate or for the exoneration of its assets, and therefore are not includable under the first sentence of paragraph (g) of section 302, but are includable under the second sentence where the $40,000 exemption applies. It is plain that the policies were not by. their terms payable to decedent’s executor. The policies were payable to the “Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee.” If a beneficiary had been named in the trust, other than decedent’s estate, there seems to be no doubt but that petitioner’s contention would be correct. For example, if the policies had been made payable to “Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Trustee, for the benefit of my wife, Loretta N. Carleton”, it is plain that their inclusion as a part of decedent’s estate would be under the last sentence of section 302 (g) and the full $40,000 exemption would apply.

An examination of decedent’s will shows that the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co. was named both as executor and trustee under the will. This situation seems to be substantially the same as we had before us in Marmaduke B. Morton, Administrator, 23 B .T. A. 236. In that case the Bartlett Trust Co. was named as both executor and trustee under the will of John S. Logan, Jr. The policies of insurance involved were payable to the Bartlett Trust Co. as trustee under the will. The Commissioner included the full amount of the proceeds of the policies as a part of decedent’s gross estate and the administrator claimed that the $40,000 exemption should apply because the policies were payable to “other beneficiaries” than the estate. "We denied the administrator’s contention and held that the full amount of the proceeds of the policies should be included.

In our opinion, among other things, we said:

It is reasonable to assume that Congress enacted the corresponding section of the Revenue Act of 1924 for the same purpose that it enacted section 402 of the Revenue Act of 1918. It therefore seems clear to us that Congress, in enacting section 302 of the Revenue Act of 1924, intended that there should [70]*70be included in the gross estate of a decedent the full amount of his life insurance which after his death is subject to the payment of charges against his estate and the expenses of its administration, and which is subject to distribution as part of his estate, and that it was not the intention of Congress, in enacting subdivision (g) of that section to exempt from taxation life insurance meeting such tests, although in terms payable to some one other than the executor. To otherwise interpret section 302 of the Revenue Act of 1924 would be to allow every testator the power of determining whether his life insurance, amounting to less than $40,000, shall be subject to the estate tax even though it is in fact, subject to charges against the estate, subject to expenses of administration of the estate, and subject to distribution as part of the estate.

Petitioner contends that the instant case is distinguishable from the Morton case because in that case under the laws of Missouri the money in the hands of the trustee from the insurance policies could be turned over to the executor to pay the debts of decedent, whereas in the instant case that could not be done under the laws of Massachusetts. We are not convinced that there is any such distinction when the facts of the two cases are laid side by side. If we could adopt petitioner’s premise that the fact that the policies in the instant case were payable to the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., trustee, created an express trust in favor of his wife Loretta, when coupled with the provision of his will making her the beneficiary of the trust created to have charge of his residuary estate, then we would be ready to accept petitioner’s conclusion as to the result. Doubtless the situation would have been the same in the Morton case if we had accepted the premise now urged by petitioner. But we did not accept it. The rationale of that opinion is that no express trust was created in behalf of petitioner’s wife, Caroline Logan, because the policies were made payable to Bartlett Trust Co., trustee, under the will and the will designated her as one of the beneficiaries of the trust created by the will. The effect of our opinion in that case was to hold that no express trust was created by decedent’s making the policies of insurance payable to Bartlett Trust Co., trustee, under the will and that, because no express trust was thereby created, there was a resulting trust in favor of the estate and the estate was therefore the beneficiary of the policies and the $40,000 exemption did not apply. We think we must hold likewise in the instant case.

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Related

Carleton v. Commissioner
37 B.T.A. 66 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
37 B.T.A. 66, 1938 BTA LEXIS 1087, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carleton-v-commissioner-bta-1938.