Gray v. Commissioner

19 B.T.A. 455, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2397
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMarch 31, 1930
DocketDocket No. 28937.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 19 B.T.A. 455 (Gray 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
Gray v. Commissioner, 19 B.T.A. 455, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2397 (bta 1930).

Opinion

[458]*458OPINION.

Smith :

The petitioners are the executors of the estate of Mary C. Gray who had a three-sixteenths interest in the residuary estate of Ellen Gray, who died less than five years previously and on whose estate an estate tax was paid under the provisions of the Revenue Act of 1921. Upon such interest Mary C. Gray received $172,500 cash during her lifetime and after her death her executors received two lots of stock of a value at the date of distribution of $21,030, but of a value at the date of the death of Ellen Gray of $18,495, at which value they were included in the estate-tax return of Ellen Gray. The respondent has allowed the deduction of $18,495 from the gross estate in the estate-tax return of Mary C. Gray under section 403(a) (2) of the Revenue Act of 1921 in respect of the receipt of such stock. The executors of Mary O. Gray, the petitioners herein, also received cash distributions from the executor of the estate of Ellen Gray on March 3,1924, of $7,008.83 and on May 14, 1924, of $9,886.22, which last-named amount was in final liquidation of Ellen Gray’s estate. The petitioners claim the right to deduct from the gross estate of Mary C. Gray under section 403(a) (2) of the Revenue Act of 1921, as prior taxed property, not only the $18,495 allowed by the respondent as a deduction, but also the total [459]*459amount of cash received by Mary C. Gray during her lifetime ($172,500), and the cash received by the executors after her death ($16,895.05), from the estate of Ellen Gray, or a total of $189,395.05. The respondent has disallowed the deduction of the entire $189,395.05 in question upon the ground that the executor of the estate of Ellen Gray made these payments from a mixed fund consisting of corpus, gains, and income and that it is impossible to determine that any portion of the cash in question came from the corpus of the estate of Ellen Gray.

All of the cash received by Mary C. Gray and by her executors from the estate of Ellen Gray was deposited in a special account in the New England Trust Co., Boston, Mass., and such cash or bonds purchased therewith was kept separately from the balance of the estate of Mary C. Gray and the value thereof was included in the estate-tax return of Mary C. Gray at an amount in excess of $189,395.05. The estate of Mary C. Gray, excluding all property received from the estate of Ellen Gray, was more than sufficient to meet all expenses of her estate and no part of the property and cash received from Ellen Gray’s estate was used by the executors of Mary C. Gray to pay expenses deductible under section 403(a)(1) or legacies deductible under section 403(a)(3) of the Revenue Act of 1921.

The only question for our determination in this proceeding is whether any part of the $189,395.05 cash received from the estate of Ellen Gray is identifiable as having been included in the gross estate of Ellen Gray and, if any part, the amount thereof.

The provision of law applicable to the issue in this proceeding is section 403 of the Revenue Act of 1921, which, so far as material, reads as follows:

That for the purpose of the tax the value of the net estate shall be determined—
(a) In the case of a resident, by deducting from the value of the gross estate—
*******
(2) An amount equal to the value of any property forming a part of the gross estate situated in the United States of any person who died within five years prior to the death of the decedent where such property can be identified as having been received by the decedent from such prior decedent by gift, bequest, devise, or inheritance, or which can be identified as having been acquired in exchange for property so received: Provided, That this deduction shall be allowed only where an estate tax under this or any prior Act of Congress was paid by or on behalf of the estate of such prior decedent, and only in the amount of the value placed by the Commissioner on such property in determining the value of the gross estate of such prior decedent, and only to the extent that the value of such property is included in the decedent’s gross estate and not deducted under paragraphs (1) or (3) of subdivision (a) of this section. This deduction shall be made in case of the estates of all decedents who have died since September 8, 1916.

[460]*460In the instant proceeding the distributions of cash to Mary C. Gray by the executor of the estate of Ellen Gray and also the distributions of cash from the same source to her .executor after her death were made from commingled funds. We have heretofore had occasion several times to pass upon cases involving payments from commingled funds. In Seaboard National Bank of New York, N. Y., Executor, 11 B. T. A. 1386, the facts were that the petitioner commingled funds of the estate derived from the sale of prior taxed property with funds derived from other sources, and made expenditures therefrom deductible under paragraph (1) of section 403 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1921. The funds from other prior • taxed property were not sufficient to meet all such expenditures as made, but the taxable estate at decedent’s death and at all times thereafter was of sufficient value to cover all charges against it, deductible under paragraphs (1) and/or (3) of said section. We held that the deduction allowable under paragraph (2) of said section for prior taxed property should not be reduced to any extent on account of deductions allowed and allowable under paragraph (1). It was our opinion that to the extent that the property of the decedent, other than previously taxed property, came into the hands of the executor and was subject to the payment of debts, it might be allocated to that purpose without considering whether the executor made payments out of such funds or out of funds realized from the sale of property received from the estate of the prior decedent. The deduction under paragraph (2) of section 403 was measured by values and earmarking of the property was thought to be unnecessary. In Sidney L. Shannon, Executor, 16 B. T. A. 743, we held that the proviso contained in subdivision (2) of section 403, viz.—

this deduction shall be allowed * * * [a] only in the amount of the value placed by the Commissioner on such property in determining the value of the gross estate of such prior decedent, and [b] only to the extent that the value of such property is included in the gross estate and not deducted under paragraphs (1) or (3) of subdivision (a) of this section,

was not concerned with the property from which payment is made. The proviso relates to value. The deduction is to be allowed to the extent that the value of such property is included in decedent’s gross estate and not deducted in paragraphs (1) and (3).

We are, therefore, of the opinion that the fact that Mary O. Gray and her estate received the cash here in question from the estate of Ellen Gray from a fund consisting of corpus, gains, and income of the estate of Ellen Gray is not sufficient in itself to render it impossible to identify a part of the cash received as having been included in the corpus of the estate of Ellen Gray and therefore included in the gross estate returned for Federal estate-tax purposes.

[461]*461Petitioners contend that $173,725.24 of the $189,395.05 is identifiable as having been included in the gross estate of Ellen Gray.

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Bluebook (online)
19 B.T.A. 455, 1930 BTA LEXIS 2397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-commissioner-bta-1930.