Faulkner v. Commissioner

41 B.T.A. 875, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1127
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedApril 18, 1940
DocketDocket No. 92815.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 41 B.T.A. 875 (Faulkner v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Faulkner v. Commissioner, 41 B.T.A. 875, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1127 (bta 1940).

Opinion

OPINION.

Smith :

This proceeding is for the redetermination of a deficiency of $2,262.56 in petitioner’s gift tax for the year 1935. Petitioner alleges that the respondent erred in determining her net taxable gifts for 1935 in not allowing an exclusion of $5,000 for each of four gifts in [876]*876trust, one for the benefit of each of her three living children and the fourth for the benefit of an unborn child, and in not allowing the deduction of three $5,000 exclusions respecting a conveyance in trust by the petitioner of certain insurance policies on the life of her father for the benefit of two of her brothers and her sister. A further issue is raised as to the right of the petitioner to a deduction under section 505 (a) (2) (B) of the Revenue Act of 1982, as amended by section 517 (a) of the 1934 Act, for a gift of $6,000 to the Birth Control League of Massachusetts.

The facts are stipulated.

On December 30,1935, the petitioner created four irrevocable trusts, one for the benefit of each of her three minor children and a fourth for her first child born after December 30, 1935. Securities of a value of $20,681.25 were conveyed to the trustee, the Wilmington Trust Co., for each of the trusts. Each trust agreement provided that the income of the trust should be paid to the beneficiary either at the request of James M. Faulkner, or, in the absence of any such request, at the discretion of the trustee, and that any income not so paid to the beneficiary should be invested and added to the principal of the trust fund. One-third of the principal of the trust fund was to be paid to the beneficiary at the age of 21 years, one-third at the age of 25 years, and the remaining third at the age of 30 years. The petitioner’s first child born after December 30, 1935, was Charles S. Faulkner, born April 10, 1936.

On July 1, 1935, the petitioner, with others, created a trust transferring her interest in several life insurance policies on the life of her father, Lammot duPont, to the Wilmington Trust Co., trustee, for the benefit of her brothers, Reynolds duPont and David Flett duPont, and her sister, Alexandrine duPont. The value of the petitioner’s interest in the insurance policies at the time of the transfer was $65,612.84. The trust instrument provided that after “settlement day”, which was described as the day six months from the date of the death of Lammot duPont, the residue of the trust fund was to be divided into three equal parts, one for each of the three beneficiaries named. Thereafter, the income, and, in some instances, the principal, was to be paid to the beneficiaries.

In her gift tax return for 1935 the petitioner reported the gifts made under the trust instrument of December 30, 1935, at a value of $20,625 each but she did not report the gift of her interest in the insurance policies referred to above. She claimed four exclusions of $5,000 each in her return for the four separate gifts in trust to her three living children and her unborn child.

In his determination of the deficiency herein the respondent increased the value of each of the four gifts of December 30, 1935, from $20,625 to $20,681.25, which adjustment the petitioner does not [877]*877protest, and disallowed all of the four exclusions claimed in respect of such gifts on the ground that the gifts were of future interests against which no exclusions are allowable. Respondent also included in petitioner’s gifts the value of her interest in the insurance policies on the life of Lammot duPont which she transferred in trust for her brothers and sister. The petitioner does not contest the inclusion of the value of her interest in the insurance policies in her gifts, but claims additional exclusions of $15,000, representing $5,000 for each beneficiary under this trust conveyance.

Also, in her gift tax return for 1935, the petitioner reported a gift of $6,000 to the Birth Control League of Massachusetts, with respect to which she claimed an exclusion of $5,000 and a deduction of $1,000. In his deficiency notice the respondent did not disallow either the $5,000 exclusion or the $1,000 deduction, but in an amended answer filed in this proceeding he asks that the deficiency be increased by such amount as would result from the inclusion in petitioner’s taxable gifts of $1,000 of the total gift of $6,000.

The respondent concedes in his brief filed in this proceeding that the petitioner is entitled to four exclusions of $5,000 each for the gifts which she made by separate trust conveyances for the benefit of her four children. The concession was made in reliance upon the Board’s decision in Seymour H. Knox, 36 B. T. A. 630, and other cited cases, wherein the Board and, in some cases, the courts have held that the exclusion of $5,000 is allowable to each trust and not to each beneficiary. We have held, however, in Wilton Rubinstein, 41 B. T. A. 220, following Welch v. Davidson, 102 Fed. (2d) 100; Robertson v. Nee, 105 Fed. (2d) 651; Rheinstrom v. Commissioner, 105 Fed. (2d) 642; and McBrier v. Commissioner, 108 Fed. (2d) 967, that the beneficiary and not the trust is the donee and that a $5,000 exclusion is allowable for each beneficiary.

Under the rule of the cases cited there is no doubt as to the petitioner’s right to an exclusion of $5,000 for each of the three gifts in trust for her three minor children. However, as to the fourth gift of a like amount which the petitioner made for her unborn child, a more difficult question is presented. All four of the gifts were made on December 30, 1935. Was the gift in trust for “her first child born after December 30, 1935” a valid gift made in the year 1935 and, if so, was it a gift of a future interest within the meaning of section 504 (b) of the Revenue Act of 1932? The section of the statute referred to reads as follows:

SEC. 504. NET 6XETTS.
*******
(b) Gifts Less Than $5,000. — In tbe case of gifts (other than of future interests in property) made to any person by tbe donor during the calendar year, the first $5,000 of such gifts to such person shall not, for the purposes [878]*878of subsection (a), be included in the total amount of gifts made during such year.

A learned discussion of tire legal status of an unborn child or a child aen ventre sa meren is found in Cooper v. Heatherton, 65 App. Div. 561; 73 N. Y. S. 14, where it was said:

* * * In Long v. Blackhall, 7 Term. R. 160, it was contended that the will violated the rule of the common law against perpetuities, in that the lives were not all in being when the testator died. Kenyon, Lord Chief Justice, held that a child en ventre sa mere was within the rule. In the famous case of Thellusson v. Woodford, 4 Ves. 227, Buller, J., at page 322 et seq., discusses the doctrine, comments upon the cases, and concludes:
“Why should not children en ventre sa mere be considered generally in existence? They are entitled to all the privileges of other persons. In this case it is enough to say that such child is capable of having an estate given to him, and consequently to another person for his life.”
This decision is noticed by the chancellor in Marsellis v. Thalhimer, 2 Paige, 35, 21 Am. Dec. 66, where he says:

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Related

Cassman v. United States
31 Fed. Cl. 121 (Federal Claims, 1994)
Carson v. Commissioner
71 T.C. 252 (U.S. Tax Court, 1978)
Frank v. Commissioner
3 T.C.M. 1180 (U.S. Tax Court, 1944)
Faulkner v. Commissioner
41 B.T.A. 875 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
41 B.T.A. 875, 1940 BTA LEXIS 1127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/faulkner-v-commissioner-bta-1940.