Ingalls v. Commissioner

40 T.C. 751, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJuly 29, 1963
DocketDocket No. 148-62
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 40 T.C. 751 (Ingalls 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
Ingalls v. Commissioner, 40 T.C. 751, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81 (tax 1963).

Opinion

OPINION

Scott, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s gift tax for the year 1958 in the amount of $10,237.50. A question of the valuation of stock raised by the pleadings has been disposed of by the parties by stipulation, leaving for our decision the following issues:

(1) Is petitioner entitled to deduct in computing lier gift tax for 1958 all or any portion of her $30,000 specific gift tax exemption, even though this entire exemption was claimed on her gift tax return for 1957 reporting one-half of her husband’s gifts made prior to his death on November 23,1957, where, as a result of respondent’s examination of the estate tax return of her husband’s estate, a sufficient portion of his gifts in 1957 was held to be includable in his estate as made in contemplation of death to result in one-half of the remaining gift, less the allowable individual exclusions, being less than $30,000 ?

(2) If an interpretation of the gift tax provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 results in a denial to petitioner of the right to a deduction of any portion of her specific $30,000 gift tax exemption in the computation of her 1958 gift tax, is the result the taxation of an amount, both as an inter vivos gift and a testamentary disposition, in such a manner as to constitute double taxation, which would deprive petitioner of property without due process of law, in contravention of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States ?

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

Petitioner, an individual residing in Hot Springs, Ya., filed her gift tax return for the calendar year 1958 with the district director of internal revenue at Richmond, Ya.

On August 28, 1957, petitioner’s husband, Fay Ingalls, made cash gifts of $150,000 consisting of gifts of $25,000 to each of his 4 children and $5,000 to each of his 10 grandchildren. Fay Ingalls died on November 23,1957.

Pursuant to the provisions of section 2513 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954,1 petitioner and the Estate of Fay Ingalls, Deceased, consented on their timely filed Federal gift tax returns for the year 1957 to have the gifts made by each to third parties during the year 1957 considered as having been made one-half by each of them.

In her gift tax return for 1957 petitioner reported total gifts of $75,000, being one-half of the gifts made by her husband which were considered as made by her and claimed exclusions therefrom totaling $37,000 (4 at $3,000 and 10 at $2,500) and the specific exemption of $30,000 leaving taxable gifts for the year of $8,000 on which she paid a tax of $270.

Respondent determined a deficiency in estate tax in the Estate of Fay Ingalls as a result of determining, in'an examination of his return, that $75,000 of the total gifts of $150,000 made by Fay Ingalls on August 28,1957, were made in contemplation of death and includable in his gross estate. The deficiency so determined was assessed and a credit against estate tax was allowed for the gift tax paid with respect to the portion of the gifts which were included in the gross estate.

On October 3,1958, petitioner made gifts in trust for the benefit of her four children of stock of D. H. Holmes Co. and Virginia Hot Springs Co., Inc., which gifts were reported in her timely filed gift tax return for the year 1958. In her gift tax return for 1958 petitioner claimed no amount of her $30,000 specific exemption but showed in that return that the entire $30,000 specific exemption had been used by her in 1957.

Respondent in his notice of deficiency increased the total amount of gifts as reported by petitioner as a result of valuing the stock which was the subject of her gifts at an amount in excess of the amount at which it had been valued by petitioner in her gift tax return. In explanation of the determination of the deficiency respondent stated that petitioner’s contention “that your 1957 gift tax should be recomputed, based on transfers in the amount of $75,000.00 instead of $150,000.00, which would increase the amount of the specific exemption available for the year 1958, has been denied.”

Petitioner in her petition alleged error in respondent’s refusal to allow her a $30,000 specific exemption in 1958 and by amended petition added an additional assignment of error that—

Suck refusal to reinstate Petitioner’s exemption constitutes a violation of Petitioner’s rights under Amendment V of the Constitution of the United States in that its effect is to tax the same transaction both as a completed inter vivos gift and also as a post mortem transfer.

Petitioner argues that she made no “effectual use” of her $30,000 specific exemption in 1957. Petitioner takes the position that the lack of “effectual use” of her specific exemption in 1957 is comparable to a situation where the specific exemption was claimed in a year in which no gift was in fact made. Petitioner relies on cases and a ruling of respondent which hold that claiming a deduction for a specific gift tax exemption in a year in which no valid gift was in fact made does not prohibit the use of the specific exemption in a subsequent year in Which a valid gift is made. Katherine Schuhmacher, 8 T.C. 453, 464 (1947); Carl J. Schmidlapp, 43 B.T.A. 829 (1941); and Rev. Rul. 55-709, 1955-2 C.B. 609.

Respondent contends that under the facts in the instant case valid inter vimos gifts were made by petitioner’s husband in t'he year 1957 in the amount of $150,000, that these gifts were subject to gift tax, and that petitioner in computing her gift tax for 1957 has used her $30,000 specific exemption. Respondent points out that section 2012 provides for a credit against estate tax of the gift tax paid with respect to property transferred by gift which is held to be includable in a decedent’s gross estate for purposes of estate tax and that he has allowed this credit. Respondent in support of his position relies upon the following language with respect to gifts in contemplation of death in United States v. Wells, 283 U.S. 102, 115 (1931):

The provision is not confined to gifts causa mortis, which are made in anticipation of impending death, are revocable, and are defeated if the donor survives the apprehended peril. Basket v. Hassell, 107 U.S. 602, 609, 610 [Footnote omitted.] The statutory description embraces gifts inter vivos, despite the fact that they are fully executed, are irrevocable and indefeasible. The quality which brings the transfer within the statute is indicated by the context and manifest purpose. Transfers in contemplation of death are included within the same category, for the purpose of taxation, with transfers intended to take effect at or after the death of the transferor. * * *

Respondent argues that the provision of section 2012 that an allowance of a credit for gift tax is to he made in computing estate tax where property which has been subjected to gift tax is included in a decedent’s estate is a recognition of the fact that property which has vested in another by a completed inter vivos gift subject to gift tax may later be included in the donor’s estate.

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Related

Estate of Armstrong v. Comm'r
119 T.C. No. 13 (U.S. Tax Court, 2002)
Estate of Gawne v. Commissioner
80 T.C. No. 19 (U.S. Tax Court, 1983)
Norair v. Commissioner
65 T.C. 942 (U.S. Tax Court, 1976)
English v. United States
284 F. Supp. 256 (N.D. Florida, 1968)
Ingalls v. Commissioner
40 T.C. 751 (U.S. Tax Court, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 T.C. 751, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingalls-v-commissioner-tax-1963.