Estate of Lombard v. Commissioner

66 T.C. 1, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 5, 1976
DocketDocket No. 7030-75
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 66 T.C. 1 (Estate of Lombard 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 Lombard v. Commissioner, 66 T.C. 1, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135 (tax 1976).

Opinion

OPINION

Featherston, Judge:

Respondent has filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The issue is whether the petition was timely filed. The answer depends upon whether, under section 6213(a),1 petitioner had 90 or 150 days after the notice of deficiency was mailed to file a petition with this Court for a redetermination of the deficiency.

Decedent Bessie Deming Lombard died on March 12,1971. At the time of her death, she was a United States citizen domiciled in Panama. Her estate included assets located in Panama and in the Unitéd States. Of the assets reported on decedent’s Federal estate tax return, over 75 percent were located in Panama.

Decedent’s will was submitted for probate in' the Second Circuit Court of Panama in Panama City, and A. Oscar Van der Dijs, a Panamanian, was designated as executor under the will. The Connecticut Bank & Trust Co. (hereinafter the bank), which filed the petition on behalf of decedent’s estate, was appointed administrator to supervise the administration of decedent’s United States property located in Connecticut.

By letter dated November 4, 1971, the bank notified the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter IRS) of its appointment as fiduciary for decedent’s estate and requested a 6-month extension of time within which to file the Federal estate tax return. The extension of time was granted, and the return, prepared and signed by an officer of the bank on behalf of the estate, was filed shortly before the extended due date. In the space on the face of the return entitled “Executors and administrators (including ancillary executors and administrators)” were inserted the names of the bank, designated as administrator, and A. Oscar Van der Dijs, designated as executor. Their respective Connecticut and Panama addresses were also shown.

During the audit of the Federal estate tax return by the IRS Office of International Operations, one of the bank’s attorneys represented the estate. On February 27,1975, after completion of the audit, duplicate originals of the notice of deficiency were mailed to:

Estate of Bessie D. Lombard
do The Connecticut Bank and Trust Co., Administrator Estate Settlement Department One Constitution Plaza Hartford, Ct. 06115
and
Estate of Bessie D. Lombard c/o A. Oscar Van der Dijs, Executor Apartado 5027 Panama, Republic of Panama

The IRS was unaware that A. Oscar Van der Dijs was deceased at the time the notice of deficiency was mailed to him.

In May 1975, the bank’s then legal representative visited the IRS Office of International Operations and met with an estate tax examiner. Following is the relevant part of a letter written by the legal representative in which he summarizes a conversation with the estate tax examiner:

When I protested that there wasn’t enough time left [to provide certain evidence] she [the estate tax examiner] said that I had 150 days from the mailing of the letter which was sent also to the Panamanian Executor. When I questioned her on this she double checked the records in the office of the IRS and told me specifically that the date set up for the assessment of the deficiency was 150 days from the mailing of the notice because of the foreign interest involved.
It was after this discussion that the decision was made that I should go personally to Panama and try to further document the evidence that the Panama Sand Company stock was not a transfer in contemplation of death. 121

The petition in this proceeding was mailed to this Court by certified mail on July 24,1975 (147 days after the mailing of the notice of deficiency), and was filed with the Court on July 28, 1975 (151 days after the mailing of the notice of deficiency). The parties agree that under section 7502, the petition is deemed to have been filed on July 24,1975.

Section 6213(a), which specifies the period within which a petition may be filed with this Court, is, in pertinent part, as follows:

Within 90 days, or 150 days if the notice is addressed to a person outside the States of the Union and the District of Columbia, after the notice of deficiency authorized in section 6212 is mailed (not counting Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday in the District of Columbia as the last day), the taxpayer may file a petition with the Tax Court for a redetermination of the deficiency.

The question is whether the estate of a decedent, domiciled outside the United States at the time of her death, with an executor in a foreign country and an administrator in this country, to whom duplicate original notices of deficiency were mailed, has 150 days or only 90 days after the mailing of the notice of deficiency within which to file a petition with this Court. While this issue, not previously decided, is a close one, we think the answer is 150 days.

Under section 6213(a), a petition is to be filed with this Court by the “taxpayer.” The term “taxpayer” is defined by section 7701(a)(14) to mean “any person subject to any internal revenue tax.” The term “person” is defined by section 7701(a)(1)3 to include an “estate,” and section 69034 contemplates that “the tax shall be collected from the estate of such other person” as the fiduciary represents. Accordingly, in the instant case, the “taxpayer” is not the bank, and the petition was not filed by the bank on its own behalf. Rather the “taxpayer” is decedent’s estate, and the petition was filed by the estate, the taxpayer, acting through the bank as its fiduciary.5

Section 6213(a) also provides that a “taxpayer” has 90 days from the date the notice of deficiency is mailed within which to file a petition. But “if the notice is addressed to a person outside” the United States, 150 days is allowed. Section 6213(a) applies to income tax as well as estate tax cases, and ordinarily the “taxpayer” and the “person” to whom the notice is addressed are individuals and are one and the same. It is clear that if such taxpayer-person is outside the United States when the notice is mailed, he has 150 days within which to file his petition even though the notice is mailed to an address within the United States. Stated another way, the word “outside” modifies “person” rather than “addressed.” Mindell v. Commissioner, 200 F.2d 38, 39 (2d Cir. 1952), revg. a Memorandum Opinion of this Court; Estate of William Krueger, 33 T.C. 667, 668 (1960); Rebecca S. Hamilton, 13 T.C. 747, 751-752 (1949).

The difficulty here is that the “person” to whom the notice was addressed is not an individual but the estate of Bessie Deming Lombard. The estate had two fiduciaries — one in Panama and one in the United States — and a duplicate original of the notice of deficiency was mailed to each of them. Was the “person” referred to in section 6213(a) outside the United States when those notices were mailed? We think the most reasonable answer is “yes.” The decedent was domiciled in Panama; her will was probated there; an executor was appointed there;

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Related

Ferre v. Commissioner
1982 T.C. Memo. 425 (U.S. Tax Court, 1982)
Looper v. Commissioner
73 T.C. 690 (U.S. Tax Court, 1980)
Lawton v. Commissioner
1979 T.C. Memo. 203 (U.S. Tax Court, 1979)
Lewy v. Commissioner
68 T.C. 779 (U.S. Tax Court, 1977)
Estate of Lombard v. Commissioner
66 T.C. 1 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 T.C. 1, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-lombard-v-commissioner-tax-1976.