Fifth Third Union Trust Co. v. Commissioner

20 B.T.A. 88, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2205
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedJune 16, 1930
DocketDocket Nos. 26127-26130, 36836.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 20 B.T.A. 88 (Fifth Third Union Trust Co. 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
Fifth Third Union Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 20 B.T.A. 88, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2205 (bta 1930).

Opinion

[98]*98OPINION.

Trammell :

At the hearing' counsel for the petitioners moved that the proceeding in Docket No. 26127 be dismissed on the ground that the Board does not have jurisdiction, since the respondent addressed and sent to Edgar Stark, executor of the estate of Jacob G. Schmidlapp, the notice of a deficiency determined against the trustee under Schmidlapp’s will.

Section 283 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1926 provides in part as follows:

[99]*99If after the enactment of this Act the Commissioner determines that any assessment should be made in respect of any income, war-profits, or excess-profits tax imposed by the * * * Revenue Act of 1921, * * * or by any such Act as amended, the Commissioner is authorized to send by registered mail to the person liable for such tax notice of the amount proposed to be assessed, which notice shall, for the purposes of this Act, be considered a notice under subdivision (a) of section 274 of this Act.

The trustee petitioner filed the petition based on the notice sent to the executor. The determination of a deficiency against the trustee and the sending of notice thereof to the executor does not meet the requirement of the Act that notice is to be sent to the person liable for the tax. Caughey-Jossman Co., 8 B. T. A. 201. Since the proceeding in Docket No. 26127 was not based upon a notice by the respondent to the petitioner as required by the Act we do not have jurisdiction and the proceeding will be dismissed. See Bond, Inc., 12 B. T. A. 339; San Joaquin Fruit & Investment Co., 16 B. T. A. 1290, and Gideon-Anderson Co., 18 B. T. A. 329.

The respondent does not contend that the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp trust and the one created by the instrument of July 3, 1916, were not for charitable and educational purposes, and that the one created under the will was not for charitable purposes. The manner in which these trusts are administered and the income therefrom distributed is set forth in our 'findings of fact. The respondent concedes that the bequest in the will establishing the testamentary trust that friends and relatives be given preference does not deprive it of its otherwise charitable character. He also concedes that the trusts established by Schmidlapp are primarily for the public genially rather than for the benefit of needy friends and relatives.

The petitioners contend that the trusts are exempt from taxation under the provisions of section 231 (6) of the Revenue Act of 1921. That section provides in part as follows:

That the following organizations shall be exempt from taxation under this title—
(6) Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private stockholder or individual.

The petitioners urge that the trusts are each a fund or foundation within paragraph 6 of section 231 of the Act. The respondent contends that in the phrase “ any community chest, fund or foundation ” the word “ community ” relates to and modifies the three words “ chest,” “ fund ” and “ foundation ” and describes the manner of creation and not the manner of distribution of the trust. His contention is that a fund or foundation, to be exempt under the provi[100]*100sions of section 231 (6), must be one created by community contributions and not by a single individual.

In Bok v. McCaughn, 42 Fed. (2d) 616, the question of the deductibility, under section 214 (a) (11) of the Revenue Act of 1921, of contributions or gifts to a “ community chest, fund or foundation ” was considered. There the court said:

Tliis brings us to the fundamental question in the case. Were the plaintiff’s gifts to or for the use of a “ corporation or community chest, fund, or foundation ” ? If the instrument effectuating the gift be examined, it is at once apparent that, whatever • else it does, it certainly creates a trust. Gifts to trusts, eo nomine, are not included in the provisions for deductions in Section 214 of the Act of 1921, nor are they expressly excluded. Is the plaintiff’s gift properly described by any term of the clause above quoted?
The immediate donee in this case is not a corporation in the ordinary sense. * * * It is not a community chest. In my opinion, the word “ community ” plainly means raised or contributed by a community, and not, for the benefit of a community. Community chests are well known and extensively adopted vehicles of charity. The name implies a method of raising and administering funds for the benefit of all organized charities in a single community. One of the essential ideas involved is that the contributions should be from the whole community or from as many members of it as possible. The aim in every case is to induce every member of the community to contribute according to his means. I can not conceive of the contribution of a single individual being called a community chest and it has not been suggested that the plaintiff’s gift here for example can be described as such.
Does the word “ community ” also modify either or both of the words “ fund ” and “ foundation ” ? The plaintiff’s gift is a gift to a fund or a foundation. It is not a gift to a community fund or a community foundation. The plaintiff’s position is that the word “ community ” modifies only the word “ chest ”, and he bases this upon the argument that the word “ chest ” would be meaningless without the additional descriptive term, which is perfectly true, but it has very little bearing upon the question whether the word “ community ” also applies to the other two words in the phrase. The defendant’s position is that a consideration of all the Revenue Acts since and including the Act of 1917 down to date, clearly indicates that Congress intended to exclude gifts to trusts, and that Congress would simply be nullifying its own scheme and purpose if funds and foundations generally were exempt, because there can scarcely be a charitable fund or foundation which is not a trust.
* # # # * * *
A strongly suggestive enactment having a direct bearing upon the question is Section 706 of the Revenue Act of 1928, which retroactively allows a deduction in case of gifts to trusts for charitable purposes, but limits such deductions to cases where such gifts were made during the taxable year of 1923, and were followed in the following year by gifts of substantially the same amount to the same trust. The amount allowed as a deduction is limited to $50,000. Now what possible reason could there be for this provision, unless Congress recognized the fact that the law prior to the inclusion of trusts by the Act of 1924 was not intended to cover trusts? If the words “ fund or foundation ” meant funds or foundations generally, most trusts could have been placed under these terms, and there would have been no need for the retroactive provision for the Act of 1928. The only conclusion [101]

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Related

Morrill v. United States
18 F. Supp. 697 (D. New Hampshire, 1937)
Fifth Third Union Trust Co. v. Commissioner
20 B.T.A. 88 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
20 B.T.A. 88, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fifth-third-union-trust-co-v-commissioner-bta-1930.