Estate of Bailey v. Commissioner

79 T.C. No. 28, 79 T.C. 441, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 43
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 9, 1982
DocketDocket No. 4861-80
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 79 T.C. No. 28 (Estate of Bailey 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
Estate of Bailey v. Commissioner, 79 T.C. No. 28, 79 T.C. 441, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 43 (tax 1982).

Opinion

Featherston, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in the amount of $293,499.81 in petitioner’s Federal estate tax for the Estate of Roberta L. Bailey who died in 1976. After concessions, the issues for decision are whether Joseph Bailey III has a valid claim against petitioner, his mother’s estate, based on his mother’s alleged failure to account to him for his share of the estate of his father (who died in 1943) and, if so, the amount of that claim.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Joseph W. Bailey III (Joseph III), independent executor of the Estate of Roberta L. Bailey, resided in Dallas, Tex., when he filed the petition in this case. Roberta L. Bailey (Mrs. Bailey), the decedent, was domiciled in Texas on the date of her death, September 6, 1976. A timely Federal estate tax return was filed with the Internal Revenue Service Center, Austin, Tex.

Mrs. Bailey died testate, making a few specific bequests of jewelry valued at $3,675 and bequeathing the remainder of her estate to her only child, Joseph III. Joseph III was named in his mother’s will as independent executor and was so appointed by Probate Court Number 3, in Dallas County. On the estate tax return, the gross estate was valued (as of the alternate valuation date) at $1,595,491.03, and a deduction of $765,282.50 was taken, allegedly representing the value of a claim of a constructive trust held by Mrs. Bailey for Joseph III. The Probate Court formally allowed the claim but did not pass on the facts upon which deductibility of the claim depends because there was no adverse party objecting to the constructive trust deduction.

Mrs. Bailey was married in 1924 to Joseph W. Bailey, Jr. (Mr. Bailey), and Joseph III, their only child, was born in 1926. Mr. Bailey was a lawyer and a politician, having practiced law in Dallas nearly all his professional life, except for a term he served as a U.S. Congressman from 1932 to 1934. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 1936 but was not elected. His father (Joseph Ill’s grandfather), Joseph W. Bailey, Sr., served as a U.S. Senator for a number of years in the early part of this century.

Mr. Bailey died in an automobile accident on July 17, 1943, while serving as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. He left no will. No letters of administration were granted, and Mrs. Bailey discharged the community debts without the necessity for administration.

Mrs. Bailey, as "surviving wife of Joseph Weldon Bailey, Jr.,” filed an estate tax return for her husband’s estate listing property valued at $43,762.61, with deductions of $7,687.79. All of this property was community property under Texas law; Mr. Bailey possessed no separate property. Mr. Bailey’s reported property consisted of the following:

Item Reported value

Residence . $15,000.00

Reilly Oil Co. stock — 110 shares . 110.00

Collins Morris Shoe Co. stock — 200 shares 0

Series E bonds . 150.00

Mortgage and cash . 8,622.71

Demand note of C. J. Shaeffer . 11,376.77

Miscellaneous property . 8,503.13

Total . 43,762.61

Deductions . 7,687.79

Net estate . 36,074.82

The return also listed numerous stocks described as Mrs. Bailey’s separate property. It omitted 35 shares of Liggett & Myers stock standing in Mr. Bailey’s name and having a total value of $2,467.50 (including Mrs. Bailey’s community share).

Following an audit, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) took the position that the stock listed in the return as Mrs. Bailey’s property, to the extent acquired with dividends, was community property. Mrs. Bailey argued that she and her husband had agreed that stock acquired with dividends would be her separate property.1 Mrs. Bailey and the Internal Revenue Service finally agreed to increase the value of the estate’s assets by $67,016.07 and to increase the deductions by $239.54. Of the $67,016.07 increase, $54,751 represented Mr. Bailey’s one-half community interest in stocks and bonds that stood in Mrs. Bailey’s name. This figure was arrived at by subtracting from the cost of these stocks and bonds ($395,841.95) an amount equaling funds attributable to Mrs. Bailey’s separate property ($286,339.96). The remaining $109,501.99 of the purchase price was then attributed to the community, and one-half of this difference was included in Mr. Bailey’s estate.

Based on this settlement with the IRS, the parties have agreed, for the purposes of the instant case, that Mr. Bailey’s net interest in the community estate (without regard to the estate tax and related expenses) as of the date of his death on July 17,1943, was $73,396.68.2

As the settlement of Mr. Bailey’s estate neared final resolution, Mr. J. P. Jackson, one of Mrs. Bailey’s attorneys, wrote a letter dated November 15, 1946, which was found by Joseph III in his mother’s safe-deposit box after her death (the Jackson letter). The letter reads in part as follows:

The [IRS] Agent has accepted our theory that since these stocks were purchased in the name of Mrs. Bailey and were purchased with community funds, her separate estate is indebted to the community estate in this amount. This more or less arbitrary handling of the items in dispute eliminated the necessity of going into the question of gift tax liability, and served to confirm in Mrs. Bailey the ownership of these shares acquired during marriage subject only to a charge in favor of the community estate of approximately $109,502.00, one half of which, representing the decedent’s interest, was held to be taxable. * * *
One question may arise in connection with this tax settlement. Inasmuch as the son inherited one-half of the community property, and Mrs. Bailey took one-half, representing her community interest, there is a question in my mind as to whether or not it may not be to the interest of the parties to give effect to the tax settlement in the final administration of the estate.
I realize of course that the more or less arbitrary basis of settlement with the Agent is not necessarily controlling between the parties, but if Mrs. * * * [Bailey] cares to do so, I feel that she could adopt the settlement as the basis for actual accounting and thereby get into her son’s hands these values without gift tax, and thus reduce her estate against subsequent estate tax liabilities by these amounts.

An affidavit of heirship was later filed by Mrs. Bailey (then Roberta L. McKinney, see infra) and was recorded on May 23, 1949, in the deed records of Dallas County. This affidavit states that Mr. Bailey left no will, and that Joseph III was his only child. Under Texas laws of descent and distribution, Joseph III was entitled to his father’s one-half of the community property at his father’s death. Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. art. 2578 (1925) (repealed effective Jan. 1,1956). There is no evidence that Mrs. Bailey set up any separate account or trust for Joseph Ill’s benefit.

Prior to his father’s death, Joseph III had spent considerable time away from home.

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Bluebook (online)
79 T.C. No. 28, 79 T.C. 441, 1982 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-bailey-v-commissioner-tax-1982.