Guaranty Trust Co. v. Commissioner

30 B.T.A. 314, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1349
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedApril 4, 1934
DocketDocket No. 72199.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 30 B.T.A. 314 (Guaranty 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
Guaranty Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 30 B.T.A. 314, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1349 (bta 1934).

Opinion

OPINION.

Morris:

This proceeding is for the redetermination of a deficiency in income tax of $192.32 for the year 1931. It is alleged that [315]*315the respondent erred in the following particulars: (1) In the dis-allowance of a deduction of $1,682.45 representing expenditures for taxes, insurance, and miscellaneous items on real estate, and (2) in the elimination from income of the sum of $4,006.93 representing income from rents of said realty, such adjustments having been made by him upon the alleged ground that the real estate with respect to which the expenditures were made and the income received was devised by the decedent in equal shares to his wife and two children, and therefore the expenses therefor are deductible by and the income thereon is taxable to the devisees under the will. .

The decedent died on January 3, 1930, and the petitioner, a trust company, organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York, is his duly appointed executor under his last will and testament.

After providing for specific legacies aggregating $1,550,000, articles eighth and ninth of such will provide:

Eighth: Inasmuch as a large part of my estate consists of mortgages upon real estate guaranteed by title insurance corporations, I direct that such guaranteed mortgages shall be divided equally among my said wife and my said two sons as far as practicable, and as to the remainder of my estate, both real and personal, and also as to said guaranteed mortgages if advisable for any reason, I hereby give and grant unto my executor hereinafter named full power and authority in its discretion to lease, mortgage, sell and convey the same separately at different times, and to execute and deliver all leases, mortgages, deeds and conveyances, bills of sale, grants and other instruments suitable or proper for transferring good, sufficient and valid titles thereto.
Ninth: The entire residue of my estate I give, devise and bequeath to my wife, Adeline R. Brown, and my two sons, Oaxton Brown and Stanley Brown, in equal parts.

On October 13, 1931, the legatees elected to take the estate in kind at the values to be fixed for inheritance tax purposes and subsequently thereto all pxcept reserves for taxes and administration expenses were distributed. In or about the fall of 1931, following the election of the legatees to take distribution of the assets of the estate in kind, a corporation was caused to be organized under the laws of the State of New York, to which was conveyed substantially all of the realty owned by the decedent at the time of his death. That conveyance was made by the legatees themselves and there was obtained from the executor a writing to the effect that any legacies which were charged upon the realty had been paid and the executor had no interest whatever therein. Since that time the realty has been administered under a corporate name. Prior to the making of the election by the legatees the executor sold at least one piece of property owned by the decedent. In another case the legatees sold a parcel of property, but the purchasers required a quitclaim deed from the executor reciting that the executor claimed no [316]*316part of the realty described in the deed to be used for the payment of legacies.

The executor expended $7,682.45 in 1931 for taxes, insurance, and miscellanéous items upon tbe real estate held by it and it received rent of $4,006.93 from leases upon such real estate in that year. Since the election of the legatees to take the properties in kind was made, no payments of realty taxes or insurance, etc., have been made by the executor upon such real estate.

The respondent’s deficiency notice, in eliminating those items from his determination, says:

The taxes and insurance claimed on the estate return in the amount of $7,682.45, representing expenditures made by the estate with respect to real estate devised by the testator in equal shares to his wife and two children, have been disallowed for the reason that all expenses in connection with such equity are only deductible by the devisees. Accordingly, the rents reported from this property in the amount of $4,006.93 have been eliminated from income.

The net inventory value of the estate, exclusive of realty, was $1,470,000 and the realty had a value of approximately $370,000.

The petitioner contends that where the language of the instrument blends personalty with realty and the personalty is insufficient to pay the specific legacies, they become a charge against the realty to the extent of the deficiency in amount; that there became in this case a “ blending and combining of the real and personal estate in one devise,” hence, in effect, it contends, there was no vesting of the estate in the realty upon death, to the heirs, consequently the expenses paid here as charges against the realty and the income therefrom were properly accounted for by it as executor.

The respondent cities George L. Craig, 7 B.T.A. 504, involving a similar state of facts. In that case we held that under the laws of Pennsylvania- the executors under a will have no right to the rents and profits arising from realty of a deceiient unless such right be conferred by the will itself and that the rents were taxable to the devisees under the will.

The petitioner concedes that in the ordinary case realty descends to the heirs at law and not to the executors of the estate. We infer that this concession applies also to the State of New York — but it distinguishes the George L. Craig case upon the facts, from the instant case, because (1) that case arises under the laws of a different state, Pennsylvania — but it does not show what difference there is in the laws of the two states, if there be any, or where such difference would produce a different result here — and (2) in that case the personalty was ample to satisfy all of the demands to be made thereupon, the executors’ only interest in the realty there being in the exercise of a ¡sower of reinvesting conferred by the will.

[317]*317The principle upon which the Craig case rested was that under the laws of Pennsylvania realty descends, without lapse of time,' to the lawful heirs or devisees and, therefore, all of the rents, issues, and profits accruing thereto are likewise the property, of such heirs or devisees. We find in book 13, paragraph 14, of McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated that “ Every will that shall be made by a testator, in express terms, of all his real estate, or in any other terms denoting his intent to devise all his real property, shall be construed to pass all the real estate, which he was entitled to devise, at the time of his death ”; and in section 2672, paragraph 9 of Chase’s Pocket Code Civil Procedure, New York, it is said, “Things annexed to the freehold or to a building, shall not go to the executor, but shall descend with the freehold to the heirs or devisees * * *. The right of an heir to any property, not enumerated in this section, which by the common law would descend to him, is not impaired by the general terms of this section.” Those provisions were cited and quoted by the respondent’s counsel at the hearing. The petitioner’s counsel cites no modifications of those provisions by later enactments, and though we have made careful search we have found none. See also Greene v. Greene, 26 N.E. 739.

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Related

Neuman v. Commissioner
1969 T.C. Memo. 140 (U.S. Tax Court, 1969)
Herter v. Commissioner
1961 T.C. Memo. 19 (U.S. Tax Court, 1961)
Guaranty Trust Co. v. Commissioner
30 B.T.A. 314 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1934)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 B.T.A. 314, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guaranty-trust-co-v-commissioner-bta-1934.