Critchfield v. Commissioner

32 T.C. 844, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 134
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 30, 1959
DocketDocket No. 57975
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 32 T.C. 844 (Critchfield 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
Critchfield v. Commissioner, 32 T.C. 844, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 134 (tax 1959).

Opinion

OPINION".

HaRROn, Judge:

The first question is whether, under section 811 (j)1 the value at which the 184 shares of stock of the Shelby Company shall be included in the decedent’s gross estate is their fair market value, $65 per share, on November 8, 1951, when the shares were sold to the widow, or $58 per share, the price approved by the Probate Court under the widow’s election to purchase the shares from the estate.

Petitioner contends that he was required by order of the Probate Court to sell the stock at the appraised value of $58 per share and that, therefore, the clause in section 811 (j), “shall be included at its value as of the time of such distribution, sale, exchange, or other disposition,” should be construed for the purpose of this case to mean the amount per share which the executor received for the stock. He argues that he took title to the block of 1,580 shares subject to the right of the surviving spouse under section 10509-89 of the Ohio General Code2 (Lifetime ed., which applied to estates of decedents who died before October 1,1953) to elect to exercise an option to purchase a portion of the stock; that such option had a zero value at the time of the decedent’s death; that the option could not be exercised until the appraisement of the estate had been approved by the Probate Court; and that the sale of the stock under the Ohio statute should relate back to the value at the date of death. He contends, in effect, that the Commissioner is bound by the value which was approved by the Probate Court, under the Ohio statute, and that, otherwise, the executor is placed in the peculiar position of having to include the stock in the gross estate at a higher value than, under the Ohio statute, he was, in this instance, permitted to receive under an involuntary sale. Petitioner does not cite any authority in support of the construction of section 811 (j) for which he urges our approval.

We agree with the respondent that under section 811 (j) the property in question is includible in the gross estate at its fair market value on the date of the sale, $65 per share. There is no merit to the contentions of the petitioner.

The executor elected in the estate tax return to have all of the property of the decedent valued “in accordance with values as of a date or dates subsequent to the decedent’s death as authorized by section 811 (j) of the Internal Revenue Code.” Section 811 (j) provides that if the executor so elects in the return, the gross estate shall be valued as of the date 1 year after the decedent’s death, except that property included in the gross estate which, within 1 year after death, is sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of shall be included at its value as of the time of such sale, exchange, or other disposition. The 184 shares of stock in issue were sold, exchanged, and distributed to the surviving spouse on November 8,1951, and on that date the fair market value of the stock was $65 per share. Section 811 (j) clearly provides that where the optional valuation date is elected, the value of property at the time of its sale, exchange, or distribution, whichever occurs first, must be in lieu of any other value. There is no warrant in the statute for using the date-of-death value of the stock for which claim is made by petitioner, who assumes that such value was $58 per share.3

In section 81.11 of Regulations 105, page 32, it is provided that, “Property, in the case of a sale, exchange, or other disposition within the 1-year period, is to be valued as of the date when it ceases to form a part of the estate, that is, the date when the title passes as the result of a sale, exchange, or other disposition. The terms ‘distributed,’ ‘sold,’ ‘exchanged,’ and ‘otherwise disposed of’ comprehend all possible ways by which property may be separated or passed from the gross estate.” The transfer, or sale, of the stock in question to the decedent’s surviving spouse under the procedure allowed by the provisions of section 10509-89 of the Ohio General Code, constituted either a sale, or an exchange, or other disposition under the provisions of section 811 (j). As a matter of fact, it appears that the stock was transferred to the widow in lieu of $10,000 to which she was entitled for her maintenance during the first 12 months following the death of the decedent, and in this respect, the transfer appears to have been a disposition of the stock in lieu of payment of $10,000 in cash, and in lieu of the executor’s selling property in the gross estate to a stranger for the purpose of obtaining $10,000 in cash. Under the regulation, the petitioner’s contention cannot be sustained. Considerable weight is to be given to the regulation in view of the fact that it has been in existence without substantial change since 1936. Helvering v. Winmill, 305 U.S. 79. Furthermore, even if it were to be assumed that $58 per share was the fair market value of the stock at the date of the decedent’s death, as is stated in the appraisers’ report, it would be clearly contrary to the provisions of section 811 (j) to include the stock in the gross estate at such value.

It is immaterial and irrelevant that the executor received only $58 per share for the stock and that the widow was allowed to purchase the stock for that price. In the following cases involving analagous situations there was rejected a similar claim that the value of property for inclusion in a gross estate, under Federal estate tax law, should be determined on the basis of a transaction which occurred after the decedent’s death, rather than by the fair market value of the property at the date required by section 811 or 811 (j). See Claire Giannini Hoffman, 2 T.C. 1160, affirmed sub nom. Giannini v. Commissioner, 148 F. 2d 285, certiorari denied 326 U.S. 730; Estate of George Marshall Trammel, 18 T.C. 662; and Estate of Robert R. Gannon, 21 T.C. 1073. The rationale of these cases is that property must he included in the gross estate at its full fair market value, even though the executor may be bound to sell the property after the decedent’s death at a lesser price.

It is noted, further, that the widow’s application to the Probate Court to purchase the stock for $58 per share was approved by that court in a nonadversary proceeding. We have held frequently that determinations made in a nonadversary proceeding by a local court are not binding upon this Court in determining questions under the provisions of the applicable Federal statute. Estate of Arthur Sweet, 24 T.C. 488, affd. 234 F. 2d 401, certiorari denied 352 U.S. 878; Estate of Ralph Rainger, 12 T.C. 483, affd. 183 F. 2d. 587, certiorari denied 341 U.S. 904; James S. Reid Trust, 6 T.C. 438.

It is held that the stock in question is includible in the gross estate at the value of $65 per share.

The petitioner contends, next, that the estate is entitled to a deduction under section 812(e)4 in the amount of $1,288, which represents an increment of $7 per share, the difference between the appraised value and the fair market value per share of the 184 shares of stock.

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Related

Estate of Friedberg v. Commissioner
1992 T.C. Memo. 310 (U.S. Tax Court, 1992)
Estate of Caswell v. Commissioner
62 T.C. No. 7 (U.S. Tax Court, 1974)
Joan Bain Nicodemus v. Lillian Wall Bain
344 F.2d 501 (D.C. Circuit, 1965)
Critchfield v. Commissioner
32 T.C. 844 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
32 T.C. 844, 1959 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/critchfield-v-commissioner-tax-1959.