Irvine v. Commissioner

36 B.T.A. 653, 1937 BTA LEXIS 672
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedOctober 15, 1937
DocketDocket No. 74612.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 36 B.T.A. 653 (Irvine 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
Irvine v. Commissioner, 36 B.T.A. 653, 1937 BTA LEXIS 672 (bta 1937).

Opinion

OPINION.

Smith:

This proceeding involves a proposed assessment against the petitioner as transferee of assets of her deceased husband for income taxes of the decedent for the calendar year 1929 in the amount of $2,728.05, plus interest.

During 1929 the petitioner’s husband, C. G. Irvine, a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, hereinafter referred to as the decedent, purchased from H. S. Byllesby & Co. a number of shares of stock in various corporations and had the stock certificates issued to himself and petitioner herein as “joint tenants with right of. survivorship and not as tenants in common.” On September 11, 1929, the decedent opened a trading account with the brokerage firm of Paine, Webber & Co., of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and from September 11, 1929, to January 28, 1930, he purchased through said brokers a number of shares of stock of various corporations, some of which were [654]*654deposited in the Paine, Webber & Co. account in the decedent’s own name and some in the names of the decedent and the petitioner as joint tenants with the right of survivorship. The decedent withdrew several thousand dollars in cash from the account during that period.

On January 29, 1930, pursuant to the decedent’s instructions, the account with Paine, Webber & Co. was changed to a joint account in the names of “C. G. Irvine & Mrs. Myrtle M. Irvine.”

On January 29, 1930, the decedent owned the following property:

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On September 11,1930, the decedent had a checking account at the Metropolitan National Bank with a credit balance of $3,991.59, which account on that date he had changed to a joint account for himself and the petitioner.

In June 1930 the decedent went to California for his health, suffering from what is commonly known as high blood pressure. He died on May 14, 1932. At the date of his death substantially all of his estate, which consisted principally of shares of stock, stood in his name and that of his wife, the petitioner, as joint tenants with right of survivorship, and not as tenants in common. The value of such jointly owned property at the date of death was in excess of $30,000. Likewise, the value at date of death of the portion of the jointly owned property transferred after 1929 was greatly in excess of the deficiency determined against the decedent for 1929. The value of all property other than the jointly owned property of the decedent at the date of his death was only $183.53. The petitioner admits a liability as a transferee of the assets of her husband in the amount of $183.53.

No cash consideration was ever paid to the decedent by petitioner in connection with any of the jointly owned property.

The decedent was survived by the petitioner herein and one daughter, Mrs. Brown. No probate proceedings were ever had in the settlement of his estate.

The shares of stock which were held by the decedent and the petitioner as joint tenants with right of survivorship at date of decedent’s death were subsequently returned to the transfer agent and reissued in the petitioner’s name.

[655]*655In this proceeding petitioner alleges errors in the respondent’s determination that she is liable for the deficiency in the decedent’s income tax for 1929, as follows:

(1) That the assessment of the proposed deficiency against the petitioner is barred by the statute of limitations;

(2) That the petitioner is not a transferee of the assets of her deceased husband within the meaning of section 311 of the Revenue Act of 1928;

(3) That the decedent was solvent at the date of his death and well able to pay the deficiency out of his interest in the jointly owned property and that she acquired his interest in the jointly owned property by right of survivorship, freed from any debts owed by the decedent.

There is no merit in the petitioner’s contention that the assessment of the proposed deficiency against her as transferee is barred by the statute of limitations. It may have been the intention of the petitioner to waive this allegation of error, although she has not expressly done so. She makes no reference to it in her brief and it is inconsistent with her admission that she is liable as a transferee to the extent of $183.53. In any event, the admitted facts do not support the contention. A deficiency notice was mailed to the estate of the decedent on August 1,1932, which was within the time covered by a waiver filed by the decedent on February 16, 1932. The estate had 60 days within which to file a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals. Section 277 of the Revenue Act of 1928 provides for a further- extension of. 60 days. Under section 311 the respondent had one year from the expiration of the time within which the tax could be assessed or collected from the estate to send a notice of deficiency to a transferee. Notice was sent on November 7, 1933. This was within the time prescribed by the statute.

The second contention of the petitioner is that she is not a transferee of the assets of her deceased husband within the meaning of section 311 of the Revenue Act of 1928. She contends that the property held by her and her husband as joint tenants passed to her not as a surviving spouse and heir-at-law, but as the surviving cotenant under the joint tenancy, and therefore free of any claims of creditors of the deceased tenant.

The respondent contends that no joint tenancy was created by the transfers made by the decedent to himself and wife as joint tenants with right of survivorship, although he concedes that joint tenancies in their common law form may be created under Minnesota law in personal property. Peterson v. Lake City Bank & Trust Co. (Minn., 1930), 231 N. W. 794. He contends that a fee owner of property can not create a joint tenancy therein by transferring the property to himself and another as joint tenants with right of survivorship; [656]*656that in such a case a tenancy in common is created. He therefore contends that the petitioner, as the surviving tenant in common, is a transferee of her husband’s interest in the joint tenancy. Anent this contention Edmonds v. Commissioner (C. C. A., 9th Cir.), 90 Fed. (2d) 14.

It is not material in this proceeding, we think, whether the petitioner took the property in question as an heir, devisee, or beneficiary of the decedent, or whether she took it by right of survivorship under the joint tenancy. This proceeding is brought against the petitioner as transferee under section 311 of the Revenue Act of 1928, which provides in part as follows:

* * * amounts of the following liabilities shall * * * be assessed, collected, and paid in the same manner and subject to the same provisions and limitations as in the ease of a deficiency in a tax imposed by this title * * *
(1) Transferees.-—The liability, at law or in equity, of a transferee of property of a taxpayer, in respect of the tax (including interest, additional amounts, and additions to the tax provided by law) imposed upon the taxpayer by this title.

Subdivision (f) of the same section provides that: “* * * As used in this section, the term ‘transferee’ includes heir, legatee, devisee, and distributee.”

In a joint tenancy the tenants hold separate and severable interests in the joint estate and “each is seized of an undivided moiety of the whole.” Wilson

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Related

Connell v. Commissioner
1992 T.C. Memo. 366 (U.S. Tax Court, 1992)
Alonso v. Commissioner
78 T.C. No. 40 (U.S. Tax Court, 1982)
Nitto v. Commissioner
13 T.C. 858 (U.S. Tax Court, 1949)
Irvine v. Helvering
99 F.2d 265 (Eighth Circuit, 1938)
Irvine v. Commissioner
36 B.T.A. 653 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 B.T.A. 653, 1937 BTA LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/irvine-v-commissioner-bta-1937.