Hyman v. Commissioner

1 T.C. 911, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 189
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 13, 1943
DocketDocket Nos. 106972, 108215
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1 T.C. 911 (Hyman 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
Hyman v. Commissioner, 1 T.C. 911, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 189 (tax 1943).

Opinion

OPINION.

Black, Judge:

We shall first consider the question of whether the respondent erred in determining that the income of the John Arthur Hyman trust in the amount of $2,300 is taxable to petitioner under section 22 (a) of the Internal Eevenue Code.1 The amendments thereto by the Public Salary Tax Act of 1939 are not here material. The answer to this inquiry depends upon whether the situation here presented falls within or without the ambit of Helvering v. Clifford, 309 U. S. 331. At the hearing counsel for the respondent made the statement that the $2,300 of income in question under this issue “may also be taxable to the petitioner” under section 166 or 167 of the Code, but in his brief he discussed only the taxability under section 22 (a) and stated “that any further possibilities under section 166 or 167 need not be discussed.” In any event the respondent contends that $1,000 of the $2,300 income representing the special dividend of $1 per share declared prior to the creation of the John Arthur Hyman trust but payable thereafter is taxable to petitioner under Helvering v. Horst, 311 U. S. 112.

Petitioner, in contending that the situation here presented falls outside the ambit of the Clifford case, relies strongly upon Commissioner v. Jonas, 122 Fed. (2d) 169, saying in her brief that this case “is almost on all fours with the case at bar.”

We think the respondent’s determination must be sustained upon the authorities of Helvering v. Clifford, supra, and Commissioner v. Buck, 120 Fed. (2d) 775. In the latter case the settlor conveyed certain shares of stock to a bank, as trustee, to pay the income to his wife for life, and on her death, to pay the income and ultimately the principal to his children or their descendants. He retained a power “to alter or amend in any respect whatsoever” the provisions relating to the distribution of the income or principal, except that this power could not be exercised for his own benefit. In the event that a beneficiary predeceased him, the share held for that beneficiary was to return to Buck, the settlor. Buck also retained the power to remove the trustee and reserved the right to vote any stock or to direct the trustee how to vote it. In holding that the settlor was taxable on the income of the trust under section 22 (a) of the Revenue Acts of 1932 and 1934 (identical with the material provisions of the same section of the Code set out in footnote 1) the Court enumerated the significant factors to be considered as follows:

That the donees are members of the donor’s family, of which he is the head; that he has “income in excess of normal needs”; that, during his life, he is unrestricted as to the disposition of any part of the corpus or income, excepting that he may not divert any portion for his personal use; thát, while he lives, he has entire control of the management of the corpus, and, at his pleasure, may remove the trustee and appoint another.

In the instant proceeding the named income beneficiary was the settlor’s only child and the trustees were the settlor and her husband, thus presenting the “intimate family group” referred to in the Clifford case. At the time of the creation of the trust, petitioner’s separate estate was something above a half million dollars. The maximum life of the trust was a little over twelve years. Upon its termination “the principal of the trust and all accumulated and unexpended income therefrom shall be paid over to the Settlor, to her own use absolutely and forever * * And in the meantime, according to article I of the trust instrument:

The Settlor reserves the right to designate any beneficiary or beneficiaries, other than herself, to receive the income and/or principal in place and stead of the beneficiaries named herein.

Broad powers of management are given by the trust instrument, the trustee or trustees being permitted to exercise practically all of the powers that might lawfully be exercised by an individual owning such securities or obligations and acting in,her own right or interest. Furthermore, the settlor reserved the power to remove any trustee and appoint another. We think the summation of these factors left petitioner as the virtual owner of the corpus of the trust for the purposes of section 22 (a), supra, and we have so found as an ultimate finding of fact.

Petitioner’s husband testified that the purpose of the trust was to provide the son with sufficient funds to complete his college and professional education and to make him financially independent until he was capable of earning his own living, but petitioner did not make that purpose secure. She reserved the power to cut her son off at any time she pleased and to designate any other beneficiary or beneficiaries, other than herself, “to receive the income and/or principal” of the trust estate. As stated by the court in Brown v. Commissioner, 131 Fed. (2d) 640 (certiorari denied, 318 U. S. 767, affirming 46 B. T. A. 782:

* * * We think that a settlor who is a person of means and who can control the spending of a fnnd, which she has set up, in every respect except spending it for herself is sufficiently the “owner” of the fund to make its income taxable to her under section 22 (a). The case, upon its facts, is not unlike that of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Buck, supra, which we believe to have been correctly decided.

We do not agree with the petitioner that Commissioner v. Jonas, supra, is almost on all fours with the case at bar. There the settlor had no power of control or management of the trust property or of the disposition of the income and the trustees were not members of the Jonas family. Neither did the settlor reserve any right to change, modify, or revoke the trusts there involved. The only power that the settlor did reserve was the right to appoint a trustee or trustees if a vacancy should occur in such position or if an existing trustee should fail to act as such. Such factors are entirely different from the factors present in the instant proceeding, and we do not regard the Jonas case as at all controlling.

Another case upon which petitioner relies in her brief in support of her contention that Helvering v. Clifford, supra, and section 22 (a) are not applicable, is Stuart v. Commissioner, 124 Fed. (2d) 772, in which the court said in reversing the Board:

We think the Board erred in holding that the petitioner John Stuart was liable under Section 166 (2) of the Act, and from what we have said we are of the opinion that he was not liable under Section 167 (a) which deals with revocable trusts, or under Section 22, which deals with gross income.

Since the filing of petitioner’s brief the Supreme Court has decided Helvering v. Stuart, 317 U. S. 154, and it held as to the John Stuart trust that the Seventh Circuit was right in holding that sections 166 and 167 were not applicable. However, the Supreme Court remanded the John Stuart case to the Board to determine whether or not the grantor is taxable under section 22 (a).

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Hyman v. Commissioner
1 T.C. 911 (U.S. Tax Court, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
1 T.C. 911, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hyman-v-commissioner-tax-1943.