Norair v. Commissioner

65 T.C. 942, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 161
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedFebruary 10, 1976
DocketDocket No. 4092-74
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 65 T.C. 942 (Norair 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
Norair v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 942, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 161 (tax 1976).

Opinion

OPINION

Sterrett, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s gift tax liability for the calendar year 1970 in the amount of $1,691.05.

The sole issue for our determination is whether petitioner is entitled to the restoration of the portion of her specific gift tax exemption, which she claimed and was allowed when she reported one-half of her late husband’s gifts as having been made by her, by reason of the inclusion of said gifts in his estate as gifts in contemplation of death.

The case was submitted under Rule 122, Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure. Hence, all of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The stipulation of facts, together with the exhibits attached thereto, are incorporated herein by this reference.

Petitioner is an individual with a legal residence at the time of filing of the petition herein at Landover, Md. Her Federal gift tax return for the calendar year 1970 was timely filed with the District Director of Internal Revenue, Baltimore, Md.

In 1957 petitioner’s husband made gifts totaling $20,000. Pursuant to section 2513,1.R.C. 1954,1 petitioner duly consented on her timely filed Federal gift tax return for 1957 to have the gifts made by her husband considered as made one-half by him and one-half by her. On this gift tax return, petitioner used $4,000 of her specific exemption.

In 1960 petitioner’s husband made gifts of $33,805.78. Pursuant to section 2513, petitioner duly consented on her timely filed Federal gift tax return for 1960 to have the gifts made by her husband considered as made one-half by him and one-half by her. On this gift tax return, petitioner used $1,981.88 of her specific exemption.

In 1961 petitioner’s husband made gifts totaling $52,200. Pursuant to section 2513, petitioner again duly consented, on her timely filed Federal gift tax return for 1961, to have the gifts made by her husband considered as made one-half by him and one-half by her. On this gift tax return, petitioner used $8,100 of her specific exemption.

Petitioner’s husband died on April 12, 1961. Pursuant to section 2035, the gifts made by him within 3 years of his death were included in his estate and an estate tax was paid thereon.

In 1970, the year in question, petitioner made gifts of $77,111.58. On her Federal gift tax return, she claimed the full specific exemption, $30,000, as being allowable under section 2521.

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s gift tax liability for the year 1970 on the ground that she was not entitled to the full $30,000 since she had previously used $14,081.88 of said exemption. By his arithmetic petitioner is only entitled to an exemption of $15,918.12. Petitioner contends that, in view of the fact that the 1960 and 1961 gifts were included in her husband’s estate and that a tax was paid thereon, her exemptions claimed with respect to said gifts were not effectively availed of and consequently should be restored to her. She claims entitlement to an exemption of $26,000.2

This precise question presented herein is not simply resolved. There is obviously at least surface appeal to petitioner’s argument, but we must decide whether it can be squared with the statutory provision involved.

Section 2521 provides as follows:

SEC. 2521. SPECIFIC EXEMPTION.

In computing taxable gifts for a calendar quarter, there shall be allowed as a deduction in the case of a citizen or resident an exemption of $30,000, less the aggregate of the amounts claimed and allowed as a spécific exemption in the computation of gift taxes for the calendar year 1932 and all calendar years and calendar quarters intervening between that calendar year and the calendar quarter for which the tax is being computed under the laws applicable to such years or calendar quarters. [Emphasis added.]

Section 25.2521-1, Income Tax Regs., promulgated with respect to section 2521 states in relevant part:

Sec. 25.2521-1. Specific exemption. * * * The exemption, a't the option of the donor, may be taken in the full amount of $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or calendar year, or be spread over a period of time in such amounts as the donor sees fit, but after the limit has been reáched no further exemption is allowable.
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The heart of petitioner’s argument is that respondent’s inclusion of the 1960 and 1961 gifts in her husband’s gross estate rendered the portion of her specific exemption claimed (and allowed) with respect to these gifts ineffectual because the estate did not receive a section 20123 credit for gift tax attributable to that portion of these gifts considered to have been given by her. Hence, petitioner urges that the specific exemption^claimed on her 1960 and 1961 gift tax returns should be disregarded in determining, under section 2521, the amount of the specific exemption she is entitled to claim on her 1970 return. We do not agree.

Petitioner’s gift tax returns for 1960 and 1961 showed total taxable gifts in the amounts of $1,981.88 and $8,100 respectively, prior to the deductions for the specific exemption. Both returns showed taxable gifts of $0 after such deductions were taken. Manifestly, the exemptions claimed on these returns obviated a liability for gift tax that petitioner would have otherwise incurred. That the liability would only have accrued by reason of petitioner’s gratuitous act in having one-half of her husband’s gifts considered as coming from her does not alter the fact that her consent, freely given, made her a potential taxpayer.

Furthermore, we deem immaterial the fact that the estate of petitioner’s husband obtained no credit under section 2012 in respect of the 1960 and 1961 gifts since petitioner and her husband’s estate are different taxpayers. Additionally, it is obvious that the sole reason for the absence of such credit is the absence of any gift tax liability on the part of petitioner for the gifts in question. If anything, the absence of such liability, and therefore the credit, is a clear reflection and direct result of the benefit that flowed to petitioner from the claimed exemptions.4

Petitioner also relies on the case of Kathrine Schuhmacher, 8 T.C. 453 (1947), wherein we held 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. She argues that respondent’s act, of including the entire value of the gifts in her husband’s estate compels a finding that she in fact made no gifts in 1960 and 1961, and cites in support of this argument a part of the legislative history of section 2012(c), which reads: “The principal effect of this provision is to allow the estate of a decedent who was the actual donor of the gift a gift tax credit with respect to the entire gift.” (S. Rept. No. 1013, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948), 1948-1 C.B. 349. Emphasis added by petitioner.) Thus, she urges us to conclude that she is entitled to have the exemptions claimed on her 1960 and 1961 gift tax returns restored.

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Related

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)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 T.C. 942, 1976 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/norair-v-commissioner-tax-1976.