Reddig v. Commissioner

30 T.C. 1382, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 30, 1958
DocketDocket Nos. 64233, 64234
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 30 T.C. 1382 (Reddig 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
Reddig v. Commissioner, 30 T.C. 1382, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81 (tax 1958).

Opinion

Mulroney, Judge:

Bespondent determined deficiencies and additions to tax in these consolidated cases, as follows:

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The issue is whether respondent was correct in- not recognizing as a partner in the Maxwell Company partnership, the trustee of certain trusts created by the petitioners for the benefit of their children. The issues under sections 294 (d) (2) and 294 (d) (1) (A) were not contested by the petitioners at the trial and they were not argued on brief. Consequently, they must be deemed to have been abandoned.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Some of the facts have been stipulated and they are hereby found accordingly.

Henry S. Beddig and Thelma D. Beddig, husband and wife, are the petitioners in Docket No. 64233. They reside in Ashtabula, Ohio. Their Federal income tax returns for the years before us were filed with the district director of internal revenue at Cleveland, Ohio. Elmer J. Kalat and Buth E. Kalat, husband and wife, are the petitioners in Docket No. 64234. They reside in Bedford, Ohio. Their Federal income tax returns for the years before us were filed with the district director of internal revenue at Cleveland, Ohio.

Prior to January 1, 1952, the Maxwell Company was operated as a partnership with Henry S. Beddig, Thelma D. Beddig, and Elmer J. Kalat as sole partners, the interests of said partners being as follows:

Per cent
45 Henry S. Reddig_
45 Thelma D. Reddig.
10 Elmer J. Kalat_

At all times since its formation in 1946, through the years involved, the Maxwell Company was engaged in the manufacture of boring heads and recessing tools, which are accessories or toolholders for other machine tools.

On January 1, 1952, the partners executed instruments called trust agreements and a partnership agreement. The trust agreement Henry and Thelma Reddig executed provided in the first paragraph that “Grantors hereby irrevocably assigns [sic] to Trustee, in trust, an undivided Twenty Per Cent (20%) interest in certain assets, subject to certain liabilities as more fully described in * * * Schedule ‘A’ and made a part hereof.” The said schedule listed the assets and liabilities of the Maxwell Company and the paragraph of the trust instrument went on to “direct” that the property assigned, to be termed the “Trust Estate,” was to “be contributed to a partnership organized this day in accordance with the copy of a Partnership Agreement attached hereto.” The further direction to the trustee was that he “continue his interest in that partnership until the termination oi this trust or of said interest in the partnership in accordance with the terms of said Partnership Agreement.”

The trust instrument names E. D. McCurdy, an attorney, and a law partner of the attorney who represents petitioners in these cases, as trustee (to act without bond) and the Reddigs’ two minor children as equal beneficiaries. It provides in paragraph 4, for discretion in the trustee to accumulate income or to pay- to beneficiaries current income or corpus until the beneficiaries reach 25 years of age, when they are each to receive his or her portion of corpus and accumulated income, but this paragraph further authorizes the trustee “in his sole and absolute discretion, if he may deem it advisable, to make such payments of income or corpus directly to any beneficiary or to any person with whom such beneficiary shall reside.”

Paragraph 5 of the trust instrument provides as follows:

5. So long as the assets of the trust are at any time invested in any business, regardless of the form in which such business is carried on, whether proprietorship, partnership or corporation, and it is decided from time to time by the managers,' partners or proprietors of any such business whether or not such managers, partners or proprietors include or consist of the Trustee of this trust, that it is in the best interests of such business to retain earnings for working capital needs or for legitimate reserves, or to provide funds for expansion or any other legitimate purposes connected with the protection or expansion of such business, then, and in any such event, the earnings shall not be required to be distributed to the trust until such time as it may be decided by the managers, partners, or proprietors of the business that the retention of any such earnings is no longer necessary or helpful to the business. The Trustee is authorized to accept the decision as to any retention of earnings in any business as being within the absolute discretion of the managers, partners, or proprietors thereof, and it shall be binding on all parties in interest hereunder, and the Trustee shall abide by any such decision so long as he may deem It in the best interests of the trust as a proprietor of such business to do so. In event any conflict arises between the duties imposed by law upon Trustee in his capacity as Trustee hereunder, and the duties imposed by law or otherwise upon Trustee in his capacity as a manager, proprietor or partner of any business in which the trust may oWn an interest, the latter shall control. The Trustee shall not be held accountable in any way for decisions or actions taken in good faith in the furtherance of Grantors’ intentions as expressed in or implied by this instrument, or in any business in which the trust may hold an interest, and in which either of Grantors may be a manager, or in which Grantors may have a controlling interest, nor shall the Trustee be held responsible to any Beneficiary or to any person or persons now or hereafter beneficially interested in the trust, for any loss in income or to the corpus thereof, unless the same shall occur through his gross neglect or willful malfeasance. For the purposes of the Trustee’s exercise of his discretionary power of distributing trust income hereunder as provided above, the earnings of any business which have been retained pursuant to the terms of this paragraph shall not be deemed to be income of the trust until such time as the earnings of the business are released to the Trustee.

Paragraph 6 of the trust instrument provides that the portion of a deceased beneficiary shall go to his issue and, if there is no issue, then to the surviving beneficiary, and, if both die before age 25 without issue, the trust terminates and the trust estate is to be paid and distributed to grantors or their heirs.

The following paragraphs of the trust instrument grant rights of grantors to add property to the trust estate; rights to the trustee to invest and reinvest trust property; rights to the trustee to deal with real estate and securities to the best interest of the trust; rights to the trustee to pay expenses and generally exercise rights and perform duties customarily exercised and performed by a trustee. Paragraph 9 of the trust instrument contains this sentence:

Grantors intend to, and do hereby, relinquish absolutely and forever all possession or enjoyment of or right to the income from the trust property, whether directly or indirectly or constructively, and if [sic] every interest, present or future, in the trust property.

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Related

Estate of Holdeen v. Commissioner
1975 T.C. Memo. 29 (U.S. Tax Court, 1975)
Ginsberg v. Commissioner
1973 T.C. Memo. 220 (U.S. Tax Court, 1973)
Krause v. Commissioner
57 T.C. 890 (U.S. Tax Court, 1972)
Hartman v. Commissioner
43 T.C. 105 (U.S. Tax Court, 1964)
Tiberti v. Commissioner
1962 T.C. Memo. 174 (U.S. Tax Court, 1962)
Bennett v. Commissioner
1962 T.C. Memo. 163 (U.S. Tax Court, 1962)
Offord v. Commissioner
1961 T.C. Memo. 159 (U.S. Tax Court, 1961)
Acuff v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 162 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)
Smith v. Commissioner
32 T.C. 1261 (U.S. Tax Court, 1959)
Reddig v. Commissioner
30 T.C. 1382 (U.S. Tax Court, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 T.C. 1382, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reddig-v-commissioner-tax-1958.