Mellon v. Commissioner

11 T.C. 135, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedAugust 5, 1948
DocketDocket Nos. 13813, 15145, 15146, 15147
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 11 T.C. 135 (Mellon 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
Mellon v. Commissioner, 11 T.C. 135, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112 (tax 1948).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disnev, Judge:

Each of the proceedings herein involves deficiencies of $474.83 and $280.25 in income tax for the taxable period January 1, 1942, to November 30,1942, and for the fiscal year ended November 30, 1943, respectively. The common issue is whether income for each taxable period in excess of the amount distributed to the primary beneficiary is deductible from the gross income of the trust. ■ Except for income tax returns, all of the facts are embodied in stipulations of the parties, which are incorporated herein by reference as findings of fact. The parties being in agreement upon the applicability of the facts in the trust involved in Docket No. 13813 to the other proceedings, our statement of the facts will be confined to those involved in that proceeding.

The petitioners are the trustees under four trusts created by William L. Mellon on November 17,1941, one for each of his four children, that is, for William L. Mellon, Jr., and three other children, all as primary beneficiaries; also for other beneficiaries. Their returns were made on the cash basis and filed with the collector at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The settlor irrevocably transferred in trust in each case 10,000 shares of the capital stock of Gulf Oil Corporation, with directions to collect the income thereon during the lives of William L. Mellon, Jr., and the three other children of the settlor, and, after paying administrative expenses, to distribute the net income and principal of the trust as provided for therein.

Section 2 of article one of the trust deed provided for the payment to the primary beneficiary as an annuity out of the income of the crust, and principal, if needed, the amount of $10,000 each year during his lifetime.

Section 3 of article one provided that any income from the trust estate in excess of the annuity should be divided annually into as many equal shares as there were grandchildren of the settlor then living and grandchildren then deceased leaving lawful issue then living, and, subject to the provisions of article two, that one of the shares should be paid to each grandchild then living and the lawful issue then living of any grandchild then deceased, the issue of deceased grandchildren to take per stirpes. In the event that at any time before the expiration of the trust there were no grandchildren of the settlor or their issue to take the excess income, until the birth of another grandchild, the excess was to be paid equally among those of settlor’s children then living.

Section 4 of article one made like provision for payments to grandchildren, and issue of deceased grandchildren, of the net income of the estate from the death of the primary beneficiary to the termination of the trust, the beneficiaries entitled to take to be determined at the time of receipt of the income and the payments to be subject to the provisions of article two of the trust. There was to be a like division and distribution among grandchildren and lawful issue of deceased grandchildren of the corpus of the estate, subject to article three of the trust, upon the termination of the trust at the time of death of the last survivor of the settlor’s four children, with remainders over in case there were no grandchildren or issue of deceased grandchildren to take.

Article two of the trust deed provided that any income payable to any grandchild or issue of a deceased grandchild under the age of twenty-one years might be paid by the trustees to the guardian of the beneficiary in such amounts as the guardian might deem necessary for the maintenance, education, and support of the ward, or the trustee in his discretion might apply the income for such purposes. It also provided that “Any unexpended income shall be retained and invested by the Trustees until such minor shall arrive at the age of twenty-one, when the accumulations of income on his or her share of income shall be paid to such minor.”

Article three provided that if, upon the termination of the trust, any beneficiary entitled to a share should be a minor, the trustee “shall continue to hold the share of such minor in a separate trust fund,” and thereafter pay from the income therefrom amounts for the maintenance, education, and support of the minor as deemed necessary by the guardian or applied for that purpose by the trustee, any excess income to be retained and invested by the trustee until the minor reaches the age of twenty-one, when the unexpended income and accumulations thereon should be distributed to him or her. The same article provided that if any such minor died before reaching the age of twenty-one, his or her share of the trust estate and accumulations of income thereon should be delivered to such persons, exclusive of the settlor, as would be entitled thereto under the intestacy laws of Pennsylvania, if the minor at the time of his or her death had been legally seized of the property in his or her own right.

During 1941, the petitioners received $7,500 from the trust property, on which they paid income tax of $1,094 in 1942. In March, June, and September 1942 the trustees received income totaling $10,000. During the taxable period ended November 30,1942, a total of $10,000 was distributed to the primary beneficiary, of which $2,500 was paid out of the income received in 1941.

On November 17, 1942, the end of the first year of the trust, the beneficiaries under the deed of trust consisted of twelvé living grandchildren of the settlor and the settlor’s son. The oldest of the grandchildren was born January 20, 1923. On November 17, 1942, the income from the property in trust in excess of the $10,000 payable to the primary beneficiary was $6,406, of which $3,906 was received in 1941 and the remainder, $2,500, in 1942. On December 14, 1942, the $6,406 (less $525 for trustees’ commissions), then designated on the records of the corporate trustee as income of trust No. B-830, was divided into twelve shares, one for each grandchild, and transferred from trust No. B-830 to separate subsidiary accounts set up by the corporate trustee, one for each grandchild, to each of which was assigned a separate trust number.

In their fiduciary return for trust No. B-830 for the taxable period ended November 30, 1942, the trustees reported income of $10,000, distributable $7,500 to the primary beneficiary and the remainder of $2,500 in equal amounts to the twelve subsidiary accounts. All of the amounts shown in the return as distributable to beneficiaries were deducted in the return, leaving no income taxable to trust No. B-830. The corporate trustee filed fiduciary income tax returns for each of the twelve subsidiary accounts, in which it reported the amount transferred to the account and paid the tax computed thereon. In his determination of the deficiency for the period ended November 30,1942, respondent allowed petitioners no deductions from trust No. B-830 for the $2,500 of excess income transferred to the twelve subsidiary accounts, upon the ground that it did not constitute a deduction under the provisions of section 162 (b) and (c) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Income received by the trustees during the year ended November 17, 1943, was distributed, transferred to subsidiary accounts for the minor beneficiaries, and reported for taxation in the same manner as in the prior taxable year, except that the share of the grandchild who became twenty-one years of age on January 12, 1944, was distributed to her on March 1, 1944.

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Related

Booth Trust v. Commissioner
1963 T.C. Memo. 265 (U.S. Tax Court, 1963)
Mellon v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
174 F.2d 828 (Third Circuit, 1949)
Mellon v. Commissioner
11 T.C. 135 (U.S. Tax Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 T.C. 135, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mellon-v-commissioner-tax-1948.