Clark v. Commissioner

1 T.C. 663, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 224
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 25, 1943
DocketDocket No. 81301
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1 T.C. 663 (Clark 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
Clark v. Commissioner, 1 T.C. 663, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 224 (tax 1943).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disney, Judge:

This proceeding involves estate tax liability, a deficiency in which was determined in the amount of $17,514.64. All facts were stipulated, and we adopt as our findings of fact those set forth in such stipulation. The Federal estate tax return was filed with the collector at Denver, Colorado. The questions presented are as to whether the Commissioner erred in the reduction of deductions for charitable transfers, attorneys’ fees, and trustees’ commissions.

In summary, the facts involved are: That Charles W. Waterman died in 1932, leaving, in addition to property jointly owned with his wife and not here involved, no property of any consequence, except that held in trust in two revocable trusts established by him during his lifetime, having at the date of decedent’s death a total value of $1,384,605.88; that each of the trusts provided for payment of the income to the trustor for his life, then to the trustor’s wife for her life, thereafter the remainder (aside from another provision not here involved) to go to the University of Vermont; that it is agreed that the value of the two trusts was includible in gross estate, and that the provision for the remaindermen is charitable; that no executors were appointed, the trustees having administered the affairs of the estate and having filed this proceeding as those in possession of the estate; that the trustor’s wife, the life beneficiary under the trusts, died in 1989; that the petitioners have since the trustor’s death, paid from trust funds attorneys’ fees of $16,079.38 for services in connection with Colorado inheritance tax and Federal estate tax proceedings and claim deduction thereof, where as deduction of only $12,-885.50 out of the $16,079.38 has been allowed by the Commissioner; that other attorneys’ fees were incurred, consisting of $13,939.39 for services in connection with the first accounting of the trustees, after the trustor’s death, settled by judgment on May 12, 1937, and $7,-048.53 for attorneys’ services in connection with second and final trustees’ accounting after the death of the decedent’s wife, settled by judgment on May 17, 1940; that deduction of both of said amounts has been disallowed by the Commissioner; that the Commissioner allowed deduction from gross estate of the sum of $6,535, trustees’ commissions for receiving trust principal and $7,511.58 for receiving trust principal, but disallowed items of $433.40 and $397.87 for paying out principal, and also disallowed deduction of $33,303.84 trustees’ commissions for paying out trust principal and $5,284.24 for receiving principal based upon increase in value; that an agreement executed at the same time as the trust instruments provided for commissions to the trustees, of one percent of market value of principal received, and one percent of market value of principal paid out; and that inheritance taxes of $157,140.24 were paid to the State of Colorado.

The Commissioner allowed a deduction from gross estate for the value of the remainder of the trust estate after expiration of the life estate of the decedent’s wife, but reduced the deduction by the amount of the state inheritance taxes, $157,140.24 (as stipulated), and by the net Federal estate tax of $31,303.98, debts and funeral expenses ; and the petitioner urges error.

We will consider the points in the above order.

With reference first to Federal estate taxes and state inheritance taxes, the petitioners’ position is this: That the first sentence of section 303 (a) (3) of the Revenue Act of 1926, as amended,1 permits the deduction from gross estate of the amount of “all bequests, legacies, devises or transfers.” (for charitable uses, as to which no question is here raised), that we have here a transfer inter vivos, and that the reduction of such amounts by the amount of Federal estate tax or state inheritance tax, as determined by the Commissioner, under the latter part of the same section, providing such reduction of “bequests, legacies, or devises,” is not proper, for the latter expression, providing for the reduction, does not mention transfers, which the section has already permitted to be deducted from gross estate. The respondent contends that transfers are, like bequests, legacies and devises, included both in the provision for deduction and the provision for reduction by estate and inheritance taxes, within proper interpretation of the section and the intention of Congress.

The petitioner relies in large degree upon Edwards v. Slocum, 264 U. S. 61, as authority for the position that in the absence of a statute requiring the deduction for charity to be reduced by taxes payable therefrom, the Commissioner’s action here must be disapproved: We find two reasons, however, for hesitation in giving to that decision the effect petitioner urges. First, it was decided prior to the present statute and interpreted one which merely provided a tax upon net estate, ascertained after deduction of charities, and held in substance that the amount of the tax may not be included in the net estate. The statute there involved contained no language with reference to reduction of deduction for charities, by the amount of taxes, so did not present the instant problem of interpretation. Secondly, the statute here presented for analysis was first passed in 1924, and “as a legislative reversal of the decision in that case,” i. e., Edwards v. Slocum, as is recited in the Congressional Committee Reports upon the Revenue Act of 1932, at which time the original provision, repealed in 1926, was reinstated. We consider, therefore, that our question requires more light than is cast upon it by the decision cited.

The gist of the petitioner’s idea here is that though section 303 (a) (3) particularly allowed deduction of inter vimos transfers to charities, yet in providing for reduction, by the amount of estate and inheritance taxes, of deductions for charities, the language specially covered only bequests, legacies, and devises, leaving “transfers” by such inter vimos trusts as here appear, deductible in full. In other words, the petitioner puts “transfers” in a wholly different category from devises, bequests, and legacies. Is this treatment justified, in view of the fact that the value of inter vivos trusts, revocable as here, is included in gross estate? Can such transfers by inter vimos trusts become a part of the gross estate as to which tax is laid and from which deductions for charity are allowed, and remain unaffected by the body of the law as to estate tax? One of the grounds upon which the inclusion of property within such transfers in gross estate has been justified is that of “substitute for testamentary disposition.” Milliken v. United States, 283 U. S. 15; United States v. Wells, 283 U. S. 102, 117. Heiner v. Donnan, 285 U. S. 312, says: “The transfer is considered to be testamentary in effect,” and Mr. Justice Stone, dissenting, used the expressions “taxed as a part of the decedent’s estate” and “their taxation as though made at death, as an adjunct to the estate tax.” In Nichols v. Coolidge, 274 U. S. 531, we read:

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Clark v. Commissioner
1 T.C. 663 (U.S. Tax Court, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
1 T.C. 663, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-commissioner-tax-1943.