Marnane v. United States

6 Cl. Ct. 211, 54 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5971, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1327
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedAugust 22, 1984
DocketNo. 671-81T
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Cl. Ct. 211 (Marnane v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marnane v. United States, 6 Cl. Ct. 211, 54 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5971, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1327 (cc 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION AND PLAINTIFF’S CROSS-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

PHILIP R. MILLER, Judge:

Statement of the Case

This is a suit for refund of $14,780 in income taxes paid for 1977. The facts are not in dispute. The question presented is as to the proper method for computing taxable income received by an heir as compensation for services performed by his decedent over a period of years.

In 1947 plaintiff’s grandfather, Arthur B. Honnold, a lawyer, entered into contracts to represent a number of Indian tribes in presenting their claims against the United States before the Indian Claims Commission. Under the contracts the amount of the attorneys’ fees depended upon the amount of the recovery and upon award by the Indian Claims Commission. The contracts further provided that in the event of Mr. Honnold’s death before final disposition of the Indian claims, his estate would be entitled to compensation for the services he rendered prior to his death.

In 1953, Mr. Honnold and his law partner assigned their interests in the handling of the claims to another law firm. The assignment provided that Mr. Honnold and his partner would receive a portion of any fees ultimately awarded. Under the agreement Mr. Honnold was to remain available “at his discretion” to act as a consultant on the Indian claims.

Mr. Honnold died in 1955. In 1972 the Indian Claims Commission adjudicated the claims favorably to the Indians, and in 1973 it awarded attorneys’ fees totaling $1,010,-900. A dispute arose thereafter on the proper division of the fees, but in 1975 a settlement was reached among the attorneys and their successors, pursuant to which Mr. Honnold’s estate was to be paid $471,484 for services rendered by the decedent between 1947 and 1955. As a result, plaintiff, heir of Mr. Honnold with a one-ninth interest in the estate, received $52,-384 in March 1977, representing his share of the attorneys’ fees.

In plaintiff’s income tax return for 1977 he reported total income of $79,192, which consisted of the $52,384 plus $26,808 of other income. As permitted by I.R.C.1 §§ 1301-05, he limited his tax on the $79,-192 by averaging the income for the current year with that of the 4 preceding years and paid a total income tax of $28,-163.

However, in June 1978, under the authority of what he asserted to be a proper application of I.R.C. former sections §§ 1301-07, plaintiff filed an amended re[213]*213turn which computed the tax on the $52,384 in a different manner than the remainder of his income. He prorated the $52,384 fee annually over the 30-year period from June 1947 to April 1977; he determined the additional tax which would have been due for each of those years by adding the prorated amounts to his taxable income for those years at the rates then applicable to him; and he then claimed that the aggregate increases in tax for the prior years was the maximum tax which could be imposed on such fee for 1977. At the same time he continued to apply the current income averaging provisions to the remainder of his income. This resulted in a reduction of $13,383 from the tax liability he had reported on his original 1977 return, and he claimed a refund of $14,780.

After the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) disallowed plaintiff's claim in February 1980, plaintiff timely filed this suit.

The current I.R.C. §§ 1301-05, which permit income averaging over 5 years, originated in the Revenue Act of 1964.2 These sections supplant I.R.C. former §§ 1301-07. The former sections permitted limitation of the tax on compensation from an employment covering a period of 36 months or more, for which 80 percent or more of the total compensation was received or accrued in the taxable year, to not in excess of the aggregate of taxes attributable to such compensation had it been included in the gross income of the taxpayer ratably over that part of the period which preceded the date of such receipt or accrual. Notwithstanding the substitution of the new provisions, however, § 232(g) of the Revenue Act of 1964 allows an individual receiving compensation after enactment of the Act but from an employment begun before February 6, 1963, to elect to compute the tax attributable to such compensation under the former sections.3

I.R.C. § 691, entitled “Recipients of Income in Respect of Decedents”, provides at subsection (a) that if the right to receive an item of income, not properly includable in the last tax return of decedent, is acquired by reason of the death of the decedent, or by bequest, devise, or inheritance, it shall be included in the gross income for the taxable year when received, of the person who, by reason of the death of the decedent, acquires such right. Subsection 691(a)(3) headed “Character of Income Determined by Reference to Decedent”, further provides that the right to receive such amount shall be treated, in the hands of the estate of the decedent or any person who acquired such right by reason of the death of the decedent, or by bequest, devise, or inheritance from the decedent, “as if it had been acquired by the estate of such person in the transaction in which the right to receive the income was originally derived and the amount includible in gross income * * * shall be considered in the hands of the estate of such person to have the character which it would have had in the hands of the decedent if the decedent had lived and received such amount.”

Plaintiff’s amended return and claim for refund may thus be deemed an election to take advantage of the spread back provision of former sections 1301-07 with re-[214]*214speet to the $52,384 fee received by plaintiff as compensation for the efforts of his deceased grandfather.

The I.R.S. does not challenge plaintiff’s right to elect the spread back provisions of former §§ 1301-07, but does differ with plaintiff in the following respects:

1. Plaintiff claims that the limitation on his 1977 income attributable to the decedent’s fee should be computed by spreading back such income over plaintiff’s own returns, whereas the Service has taken the position that the limitation on plaintiff’s income may only be computed by limiting the tax to that which results from attributing the income to the decedent’s returns.

2. Plaintiff contends that for purposes of the limitation he is entitled to spread back decedent’s compensation over a period beginning in 1947 (when the decedent first performed services to earn the fee) and ending in 1977 (when plaintiff received the fee), whereas the Service maintains that the income from the fee may only be reallocated to the period when the decedent performed the services, namely, from 1947 to the date of his death in 1955.

3. Plaintiff contends that he is entitled to the benefits of both former §§ 1301-07 and the current §§ 1301-05 in the same return, i.e., he is entitled to spread back the fee income derived from the decedent over the years 1944 through 1977, while at the same time averaging his income from other sources. The I.R.S.’ position is however that while plaintiff has the option of electing either the old sections or the new, he is not entitled to elect both methods of tax limitation in the same tax return.

Discussion

It is determined herein that defendant is correct on all three issues.

I

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Bluebook (online)
6 Cl. Ct. 211, 54 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5971, 1984 U.S. Claims LEXIS 1327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marnane-v-united-states-cc-1984.