Geary v. Commissioner

9 T.C. 8, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 157
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJuly 7, 1947
DocketDocket No. 8209
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 9 T.C. 8 (Geary 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
Geary v. Commissioner, 9 T.C. 8, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 157 (tax 1947).

Opinion

OPINION.

Johnson, Judge-.

The Commissioner determined a deficiency of $1,505.31 in petitioner’s income tax for 1941, and, with adjustments for 1942, a deficiency of $8,417.75 for 1943. Petitioner assails the inclusion in income of amounts which were distributed to her as the life beneficiary of a trust in accordance with a court decision that trust principal be used for payments of carrying charges on unproductive trust-held realty instead of income, which the trustee had used for that purpose since 1929. She contends that the amounts awarded to her as a consequence constituted á nontaxable distribution of principal, and, secondly, that section 162 (d), Internal Revenue Code, limits the taxable amount of the distribution to the net income of the trust. Petitioner also claims the right to deduct attorney’s fees incurred in procuring the decree. Other issues involve adjustments to conform to a stipulation of facts.

This proceeding was submitted upon a stipulation and exhibits, which we incorporate by reference as findings of fact, and from which it appears that:

Petitioner, an individual residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, filed her income tax returns for 1941,1942, and 1943 with the collector of internal revenue for the first district of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. She is the daughter of Alfred C. Harrison, who died a resident of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on July 30,1927, leaving a will and codicils which were duly probated before the registrar of wills of that county. By the fifth paragraph of his will Harrison gave, devised, and bequeathed to John S. Newbold, his son William Frazier Harrison, and the Pennsylvania Co. for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities, as trustees, the residue of his estate, directing them to set aside sufficient capital to produce $15,000 a year payable to/ a daughter-in-law for life, and to divide the balance into four equal parts, to hold, invest, and reinvest; to receive the returns therefrom; and “to pay the net income from one of such parts” to each of his three daughters and one son for life. Other provisions not here material relate to disposition of the remainder interest. Upon thi death of the daughter-in-law and, in case of the death of the son or aüaughter with- • out issue, the principal of the deceased’s share was to be divided equally among the trusts created for the surviving children.

The residuary estate comprised real property, which vested in the trustees immediately upon decedent’s death, and personal property, which was awarded to them by decree of the orphans’ court on July 6, 1928. The corporate trustee placed the personal property in four separate and equal trust accounts, which were each designated on its records with the name of one of the four beneficiaries, his daughters and son.. It administered the real property in a separate fiduciary account designated “Estate of Alfred C. Harrison, Undivided Account,” No. 9086.

During the years 1928 to 1940, inclusive, expenses for maintenance, repairs, taxes, and other charges attributable to operation of some parcels of the real estate exceeded the gross income from such parcels, and to pay the excess the trustees used net income of productive properties in the account and net income transferred from the four trust accounts in the aggregate amount of $87,591.91. For the years 1941, 1942, and 1943 they similarly paid such excesses in the amounts of $10,841, $52,852.73, and $7,151.10, respectively. On May 28,1941, the four children petitioned the orphans’ court to vacate, set aside, open, review, and correct the trustees’ accounts previously confirmed and to award to them as life beneficiaries the income used in prior years to pay the excesses of carrying charges on the unproductive real property. By decree entered February 6, 1942, the court held such charges properly payable from principal, and, as they had not been so paid, it awarded to the life beneficiaries “out of principal” the $87,-591.91 which had been improperly taken from income and applied to payment of the excesses. Of this award, petitioner’s share was one-fourth, or $21,879.98. The trustees paid her in satisfaction thereof $9,500 at various times in 1942 and $12,397.97 in 1943. On that part of the award attributable to the years 1935 to 1939, inclusive, petitioner has already been taxed; on the remaining $12,894.20, attributable to the years 1928 to 1934, inclusive, and to 1940, she has not.

For each of the years 1928-1943 the corporate trustee computed net income or loss by charging the excesses of expenses over gross income from the unproductive properties against net income distributable to the life beneficiaries, and petitioner reported her share of the net income so computed in her individual income tax returns for those years. Petitioner and the fiduciary filed returns on the basis of the calendar year. By the death of a sister on January 30,1942, petitioner became entitled to one-third of the deceased’s trust interest.

After the court decree and on April 22, 1942, the corporate trustee advanced $51,866.62 for the payment of taxes on unproductive real estate in the account. To repay this advance, to refund the $87,591.91 to the income account and distribute it to the life beneficiaries as ordered by the court, and to provide $541.47 for miscellaneous carrying charges on unproductive properties, each of the four trusts by the sale of securities realized $35,000, or a total of $140,000, which the corporate trustee transferred from principal to income account and expended for the purposes recited. Following the principle of the decree, the trustee on August 31, 1943, applied $6,177.03 of principal in the real estate account to the payment of carrying charges on unproductive properties.

In determining petitioner’s income tax for 1941 the Commissioner added to the amount reported by her as income from the trust $2,585.25, being one-fourth of the $10,341 of trust income used in that year by the trustees to pay carrying charges on unproductive properties. For 1942 he added to income reported $12,894.20 representing petitioner’s share of the award not previously taxed, and $12,247.60, her proportionate part of carrying charges of $42,067.09 paid on unproductive properties. For 1943 he similarly added to income reported $2,056.01, petitioner’s proportionate part of the $6,177.03 of income applied in that year to carrying charges.

In obtaining the court order for an additional distribution by the trustees, petitioner incurred attorney’s fees of $2,500, which the corporate trustee paid from petitioner’s share of the amount ordered distributed. Neither she nor the trustees deducted this payment on their income tax returns for 1942, and the Commissioner did not deduct it in determining the deficiency for that year.

In 1942 the trustee paid taxes on real properties of the trust in the aggregate amount of $64,898.69, of which only $58,398.69 was deducted on the fiduciary return. The trust reported a net loss of $56,306.87, of which one-fourth, or $14,076.72, was attributed to each trust.

(1) Petitioner assails the Commissioner’s determination that her taxable incomes for 1941,1942, and 1943 should include amounts equal to the carrying charges on unproductive trust-owned real estate which were judicially held payable out of the trust’s principal.

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Geary v. Commissioner
9 T.C. 8 (U.S. Tax Court, 1947)

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Bluebook (online)
9 T.C. 8, 1947 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/geary-v-commissioner-tax-1947.