Estate of Holdeen v. Commissioner

1975 T.C. Memo. 29, 34 T.C.M. 129, 1975 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 343
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1975
DocketDocket Nos. 65867, 65869, 71972, 71997, 82081, 82946, 87569, 89076, 94066, 94080, 94081, 94084, 94085, 94107, 94186, 95138, 95143, 5376-65 and 5382-65.
StatusUnpublished

This text of 1975 T.C. Memo. 29 (Estate of Holdeen 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 Holdeen v. Commissioner, 1975 T.C. Memo. 29, 34 T.C.M. 129, 1975 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 343 (tax 1975).

Opinion

ESTATE OF JONATHAN HOLDEEN, DECEASED, RANDAL HOLDEN and JANET ADAMS, Co-executors, and ESTATE OF STELLA H. HOLDEN, DECEASED, RANDAL HOLDEN, Executor, et al., 1 Petitioners v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
Estate of Holdeen v. Commissioner
Docket Nos. 65867, 65869, 71972, 71997, 82081, 82946, 87569, 89076, 94066, 94080, 94081, 94084, 94085, 94107, 94186, 95138, 95143, 5376-65 and 5382-65.
United States Tax Court
T.C. Memo 1975-29; 1975 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 343; 34 T.C.M. (CCH) 129; T.C.M. (RIA) 750029;
February 19, 1975, Filed.

Jonathan Holdeen during his life entered into some 186 agreements with his adult daughters or friends to create trusts. About 50 of these agreements are here involved. In some of these he named his grandchildren or his brother's grandchildren as income beneficiaries for life, with income thereafter to be paid in part to a charity and in part to be accumulated. In others he named an exempt organization as beneficiary as to part of the income, with part to be accumulated. All provided for a term of 500 or 1,000 years with the principal and accumulated income then to be paid to the State of Pennsylvania. Holdeen's wife was a co-grantor in some agreements. The original assets of each trust were of appreciated securities transferred irrevocably with reservation of payment of grantor's cost. Later some trusts purchased improved real properties. Certain early trusts were involved in litigation in U.S. courts over taxability to Holdeen of trust income for 1945 and 1946 in which income of some trusts was held taxable to him and income of others was held not so taxable.

Holdeen and his wife made certain other contributions to the fully charitable trusts in the years *344 1951-1957.

Trusts I, II and III were created in 1936, MS and NS Trusts in 1940 and others in 1944 and later years.

Trust II provided for payment of its income to family members during the lives of two daughters of Holdeen, the income thereafter to be paid to Hartwick College and at the end of 1,000 years the principal to be paid to the State of Pennsylvania. It was modified in 1943 to be deemed made under and with reference to Pennsylvania law, and to provide that capital gains would not be treated as income. In the fiscal years ended in 1955 and 1956 the ordinary income was paid to family beneficiaries and the capital gains were permanently set aside by the trustee pursuant to the trust deed for the educational or public purposes of the trust. The amounts set aside were reinvested within a reasonable time in property held for the production of investment income. The amounts set aside were not unreasonable in amount or duration, were not used to a substantial degree for noncharitable purposes and were not invested in such a manner as to jeopardize the interests of Hartwick College or the State of Pennsylvania.

Trust 45-10, a fully charitable trust, provides for payment of a part of *345 its income to the American Unitarian Association (AUA), an exempt organization, and accumulation of the remainder of its income. The trust is subject to Pennsylvania law and regulation. The amounts to be paid to the AUA are one 500th of the income for the year times the number of years elapsed since 1944, and all other net income not lawfully subject to accumulation. After 500 years the corpus and accumulated income is payable to the State of Pennsylvania.

Trust 55-10 is a split trust. A part consists of units of 200 or 500 shares of stock the income to be paid to family members for life with the remainder returned to the corpus of the trust after such lives. The other part is a fully charitable trust with part of the income payable for charitable purposes or to the AUA, and corpus and accumulated income to the State of Pennsylvania after 1,000 years. The trust is subject to Pennsylvania law and regulation. The payments are one 1000th of the income for the year times the number of years since 1950. The remainder of the income is to be accumulated, except that any part of such income for which accumulation is unlawful shall be paid to Trust 45-10.

Held, Holdeen and his wife intended *346 to and did create valid and genuine trusts.

Held further, In the taxable years 1951-1957 Holdeen, with the exceptions noted infra, did not retain or exercise ownership or control of the corpus or income of any of such trusts and the income of the trusts was not taxable to him. The exceptions referred to above are: (1) Income of Trusts II and III was taxable to Holdeen until June 30, 1954, and not thereafter. (2) Income of a portion of Trust 45-10 was taxable to Holdeen until September 30, 1956, and not thereafter. (3) Income of portions of MS and NS Trusts was taxable to Holdeen until September 30, 1955 and not thereafter.

Held further, Contributions made by Holdeen and his wife to the fully charitable trusts in the years 1951-1957 are deductible as claimed.

Held further, Trust II is entitled to deduct its capital gains as amounts permanently set aside for educational or public purposes pursuant to section 642(c), I.R.C. 1954 in the fiscal years ended in 1955 and 1956.

Held further, The accumulation provisions of Trusts 45-10 and 55-10 are unreasonable and void as contrary to public policy and the entire income of the trusts is payable to the income beneficiary, the AUA, now the UUA, *347 on a current basis. In re Estate of Frank James,199 A.2d 275 (Sup. Ct. Pa. 1964). There is therefore no accumulation subject to the provisions of sec. 681(c), I.R.C. 1954 or sec. 162(g)(4), I.R.C.

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1975 T.C. Memo. 29, 34 T.C.M. 129, 1975 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-holdeen-v-commissioner-tax-1975.