Haygood v. Commissioner

42 T.C. 936, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 24, 1964
DocketDocket No. 3240-63
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 42 T.C. 936 (Haygood 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
Haygood v. Commissioner, 42 T.C. 936, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56 (tax 1964).

Opinion

Scott, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in gift tax of petitioner for tlie year 1961 in the amount of $1,882.50.

The issue for decision is whether the gifts made by petitioner in the year 1961 include the entire value of certain property conveyed by petitioner to her sons in the form of a sale of the property for vendor’s lien notes secured by deeds of trust.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly.

Petitioner, an individual residing in Houston, Tex., filed a gift tax return for the calendar year 1961 with the district director of internal revenue at Austin, Tex.

Sometime prior to 1961, petitioner owned certain property which was condemned and as a result of the condemnation she received approximately $147,000 which upon advice of an accountant and an attorney ¿he reinvested in similar property.

Petitioner also owned certain property in 1961 which She had owned for many years and which had not been acquired with the proceeds which she received from the condemnation of certain of her property.

After purchasing the property with the proceeds received upon condemnation of other property, petitioner decided that she wished to share her property with her two sons, and with this in view consulted an accountant with respect to the manner in which She could transfer property to her sons with the least amount of tax resulting from the transfer.

Subsequent to petitioner’s conversation with the accountant, she intended to make an outright gift of certain property of a total value of $28,180 to her two sons, which property petitioner has referred to as rural property, and to make a gift of an interest of $3,000 in certain other property located in Harris County, Tex., which petitioner has referred to as city property, to each of her two sons in the year 1961. Petitioner consulted an attorney and in accordance with what he believed to be petitioner’s wishes and her accountant’s advice to her, this attorney prepared deeds conveying a portion of the rural property outright to each of petitioner’s sons. The deeds to the rural property so conveyed were delivered to petitioner’s sons around December 29, 1961. Petitioner valued the rural property at $28,180 on her gift tax return for the year 1961. Bespondent has accepted this valuation in his notice of deficiency and there is no issue in this case with respect to the conveyance of the rural property to petitioner’s sons.

In accordance with what he likewise believed to be the advice petitioner received from her accountant and her intention of making an additional gift of a value of $3,000 to each of her sons for the year 1961 and for several years thereafter, the attorney also prepared the following documents: (1) Two deeds each containing a conveyance by petitioner of a portion of the city property to one of her sons subject to a vendor’s lien; (2) two vendor’s lien notes, one to be signed by each of petitioner’s sons; and (3) two deeds of trust, one to the property being conveyed to each son to be executed by that son. On December 30, 1961, petitioner executed the two deeds and her sons executed the notes and deeds of trust. The property conveyed on December 30, 1961, by petitioner to her son C. Gerald Haygood by warranty deed with vendor’s lien had a fair market value on that date of $16,500, and the property conveyed on December 30,1961, by petitioner to her son F. Donald Haygood by warranty deed with vendor’s lien had a fair market value on that date of $16,000. The warranty deed whereby petitioner conveyed property to her son C. Gerald Haygood recited in part as follows:

for and in consideration of the sum of Ten ($10.00) Dollars, and other valuable considerations, CASH TO ME IN HAND PAID, BY C. GERALD HAYGOOD, Grantee herein, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, and the further consideration of the sum of Sixteen Thousand Five Hundred ($16,500.00) Dollars, secured to be paid and evidenced by one promissory Vendor’s Lien note, of even date herewith executed by the Grantee herein, payable to the order of the Grantor herein, in annual installments of Three Thousand ($3,000.00) Dollars, said note being non-interest bearing, the first such installment being due and payable on or before the 31st day of December, 1961, and continuing annually thereafter until said note is paid in full, said note acknowledging the Vendor’s Lien herein retained to secure the payment thereof, and being additionally secured by Deed of Trust of even date herewith, * * *

Following this statement in the deed were the general terms of conveyance and description of the property, followed by the statement of general warranties. The concluding paragraph of the deed stated:

But it is expressly agreed and stipulated that the Vendor’s Lien is retained against the above described property, premises and improvements, until the above described note, and all interest thereon are fully paid according to its face and tenor, effect and reading, when this deed shall become absolute.

The warranty deed Whereby petitioner conveyed property to her son F. Donald Haygood carried the same provisions except the amount of the note was $16,000. The non-interest-bearing vendor’s lien note payable to petitioner executed by each of her sons on December 30,1961, as specified in the deed, provided for payment of the principal in annual installments of $3,000 with the first installment due on or before December 31, 1961, as specified in the deed. The deed of trust covering the property transferred by petitioner to each of her sons named the lawyer who drafted the papers for petitioner as trustee. Each such deed of trust conveyed the property to the trustee in trust to secure the payment of the vendor’s lien note and provided that if payments were made as due the conveyance was null and void, but in case of default in payment the property was to be sold to satisfy the debt. The deeds whereby petitioner conveyed the city property to her sons were recorded, but neither of these deeds of trust was ever recorded. No payments were ever made on the note of either C. Gerald Haygood or F. Donald Haygood to petitioner. Petitioner did not intend at the time she took the notes from her sons to collect on these notes, but intended to forgive each $3,000 payment as it became due, thus making a gift of $3,000 to each of her sons at the time of such forgiveness. Petitioner’s sons understood at the time the notes were executed that it was not petitioner’s intention to collect the payments provided for in the notes, but that petitioner was having them sign the notes and deeds of trust for the property as a means of being able to give each of them a gift of $3,000 each year as the payments became due under the terms of the notes.

In 1961 petitioner’s son F. Donald Playgood was a student at Eice University and was not employed except for some work over weekends at the laboratory of the university, at which work he earned $1 per hour. He did not have the money available to make a payment on December 31, 1961, of $3,000 on the note he executed. C. Gerald Haygood on December 31,1961, was not in a financial position to make a payment of $3,000 on the note he executed.

Starting in 1962 F. Donald Haygood and O. Gerald Haygood each paid the property taxes on the property transferred to them by petitioner’s deeds dated December 30,1961.

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33 Fed. Cl. 657 (Federal Claims, 1995)
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1992 T.C. Memo. 480 (U.S. Tax Court, 1992)
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Estate of Kelley v. Commissioner
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Haygood v. Commissioner
42 T.C. 936 (U.S. Tax Court, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 T.C. 936, 1964 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haygood-v-commissioner-tax-1964.