Cory v. Pierce

74 Cal. App. 2d 721
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 1977
DocketCiv. No. 40068
StatusPublished

This text of 74 Cal. App. 2d 721 (Cory v. Pierce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cory v. Pierce, 74 Cal. App. 2d 721 (Cal. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

Opinion

SIMS, Acting. P. J.

—The State Controller has appealed from an amended order fixing inheritance tax which sustained the executors’ objections to the amended report of the inheritance tax appraiser. It deleted and reduced the clear market value of the property, subject to inheritance tax in the estate of the resident decedent, by the gross value of the remainder interest of an irrevocable trust, in which he retained a life interest, created by the decedent when a nonresident, 40 years before his death. The Controller states the issue as follows: “Are the remainder interests taxable under the California inheritance tax law where, as Trustor, a resident of the State of Nevada executed an irrevocable trust (intangibles) with a New York trustee reserving to himself all income for the duration of his life and thereafter he becomes and dies a resident and domiciliaiy of California?” The executors, in a more specific analysis, focus on the two following issues: “1. May an inheritance tax statute be applied retroactively to tax a lifetime transfer that was completed and vested in interest before the effective date of such statute?” and “2. Was the lifetime transfer in this case subject to inheritance tax under the statute in effect when such transfer was completed and vested in interest?”

The stipulated facts reflect that the decedent on October 28, 1930, then a resident of Nevada, created an irrevocable trust with a corporate fiduciary in New York as trustee. At all times the corpus of the trust consisted solely of cash and securities located in New York and administered by the corporate trustee in New York.

The trust provided for the payment of the net income to the decedent during his life. Upon his death the trust was to be divided into four equal shares, one for each of his children. Each child was to receive the net income from his or her trust during his or her lifetime, and to have a [724]*724general power of appointment exercisable by will over the residue. Upon the child’s death, the unappointed portion of his or her trust would pass to the persons who would take under New York’s intestacy laws, with special provisions for one of the decedent’s sons. Only two of the decedent’s four children were living at the date of the decedent’s death. (The inheritance tax report reflects that he died July 2, 1970.) They each received a life estate in the trust (sic, one-fourth share of the trust) with a general power of appointment over the residue. The shares that otherwise would have passed to the deceased children of the decedent, passed outright ,to their respective children in equal shares.

Because the decedent was a resident of California at the date of his death, the inheritance tax referee included this trust in computing the California inheritance tax due. The gross value of this trust at the date of decedent’s death, as determined by the referee, was $367,946.02. The referee taxed this trust by dividing the net value (gross value less his referee’s fees) by four, and taxing a full share thereof to decedent’s surviving daughter and to his surviving son, and proportioning the remaining two shares among the respective grandchildren who received the sháres of their deceased parents. The total inheritance tax imposed upon the beneficiaries of this estate was $126,317.71. The inclusion of this trust increased the total inheritance tax due by approximately $27,204.63.1

I

The pertinent provisions of the inheritance tax law in effect at the time of the decedent’s death provide as follows:

Section 13303: “ ‘Estate’ or ‘property’ means the real or personal property or interest therein of a decedent or transferor, and includes all of the following: [11] (a) All intangible personal property of a resident decedent within or without the State or subject to the jurisdiction thereof....”
Section 13305: “‘Decedent’ or ‘transferor’ means any person by or from whom a transfer is made, and. includes any testator, intestate, grantor, bargainor, vendor, assignor, donor, joint tenant, or insured.”
Section 13641: “If a transfer specified in this article was made during lifetime by a decedent, for a consideration in money or money’s worth, but the transfer was not a bona fide sale for an adequate and full [725]*725consideration in money, or money’s worth, the amount of the transfer subject to this part shall be the excess of [1Í] (a) The value, at the date of the transferor’s death, of the property transferred, over [If] (b) An amount equal to the same proportion of the value, at the time of the transferor’s death, of the property transferred which the consideration received in money or money’s worth for the property transferred bears to the value, at the date of transfer, of the property transferred.”
Section 13643: “A transfer conforming to Section 13641 and made with the intention that it take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after the death of the transferor is a transfer subject to this part.”
Section 13644: “A transfer conforming to Section 13641 and under which the transferor expressly or impliedly reserves for his life an income or interest in the property transferred is a transfer subject to this part. Such a reservation shall be conclusively presumed where the transferor retains the possession or enjoyment of the income or interest in the property transferred until his death.”
Section 13648: “It is hereby declared to be the intent and purpose of this part to tax every transfer made in lieu of or to avoid the passing of property by will or the laws of succession.”
Section 13951: “For the purpose of this part, the value of property included in any transfer subject to this part, whether or not the transfer was made during the lifetime of the transferor, is the market value of the property as of the date of the transferor’s death.”
Section 13952: “In the case of a transfer of any estate, income, or interest (a) for a term of years or for life, or (b) determinable upon any future or contingent event, or (c) constituting a remainder, reversion, or other expectancy, the entire property by which the estate, income, or interest is supported, or of which it is a part, is valued as of the date of the decedent’s death.”

From the foregoing it is apparent that the Legislature has attempted to bring with the scope of the Inheritance Tax Law all and any inter vivos transfers which may effect a gift of property in lieu of a testamentary or intestate transfer at death. The nature and theory of the tax were spelled out by Justice (later Chief Justice) Traynor in Estate of Thurston (1950) 36 Cal.2d 207 [223 P.2d 12], as follows: “The inheritance tax is primarily a tax upon the succession to property at death. The statute expressly [726]*726includes as subjects of inheritance taxation transfers of property by will, succession, or survivorship, and transfers of the proceeds of life insurance. An inheritance tax limited to the taxation of transfers from the dead to the living, however, could be easily avoided. ‘The common and perhaps not unnatural aversion of property owners to the burdens of taxation appears to have applied with special force to the diminution of the estates left by them at death through the imposition of estate, inheritance, or succession taxes.

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Bluebook (online)
74 Cal. App. 2d 721, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cory-v-pierce-calctapp-1977.