Savage v. Commissioner

31 B.T.A. 633, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1058
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedNovember 16, 1934
DocketDocket No. 70221.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 31 B.T.A. 633 (Savage 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
Savage v. Commissioner, 31 B.T.A. 633, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1058 (bta 1934).

Opinion

[634]*634OPINION.

Seawell:

Respondent determined a deficiency in the income tax of petitioner for the year 1930 in the sum of $2,630.01, for a rede-termination of which this proceeding is prosecuted. The deficiency results from the action of respondent in adding to petitioner’s reported income $17,542.69, the amount of income for 1930 derived from a trust created by petitioner on May 10, 1926.

The facts for the most part are stipulated. In so far as necessary to understand the conclusions and determination reached in this proceeding, they are hereinafter set out.

The petitioner is an individual, residing at Mendham, New Jersey. During the year 1909 she married one Russell L. McIntosh, and in 1918, there being no issue of the marriage, they adopted a boy and girl, born May 5, 1914, and September 25, 1916, respectively. The names of the children are Lachlan Bruce McIntosh and Martha Jean McIntosh (hereinafter called the children). In 1925 marital troubles developed between the petitioner and her husband. They separated and on September 2, 1926, were divorced, and in November of the same year petitioner married Albert O. Savage.

On May 10,1926, prior to the divorce, petitioner created a trust for the benefit of the children, with her husband, Russell L. McIntosh, and the Fidelity Trust Co. of New York as trustees. The trust property consisted of the following:

100 snares Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe common stock.
100 shares Southern Railway Co. common stock.
100 shares Royal Dutch Co., New York.
10O shares American Tobacco Co. common stock.
100 shares Con. Gas Co. of N. Y. common stock.
100 shares American Smelting & Ref. Co. common stock.
1400 shares National Biscuit Co. common stock.
100 shares Radio Corporation of America preferred stock.
TI. S. Liberty bonds of face value of $1,350.
Debenture bonds of Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co., face value $14,800.

The income from the trust for the taxable year 1930 amounted to $17,542.69 and comprised the following items:

Interest_ $6. 60
Interest on tax-free covenant bonds_ 740. 00
Dividends_ 16, 439.75
Profit on sale of stock rights_ 38. 09
Dividends from foreign corporations_ 321. 65
Total_ 17,546.09
Less: Interest paid- 3. 40
Net income_ 17,542. 69

[635]*635The trust instrument provided in part that the parties of the second part (the trustees) were:

To hold the said securities and property and to collect and receive the interest, income and profits thereof, and after deducting their commissions and all proper charges and expenses to pay the net income upon receipt to the said Russell L. McIntosh, * * * to be devoted by him to the support, education and maintenance of Lachlan Bruce McIntosh and Martha Jean McIntosh, adopted children of the said Russell L. McIntosh and Lillian T. McIntosh, as directed by said Russell L. McIntosh and in his discretion * * *

There were further provisions relating to the disposition of the income and principal of the fund after the children became of age. In case of the death of either of said children leaving issue it was provided:

* * * one half of the principal of said trust fund shall be paid and delivered to such issue of said child so dying, to be divided among said issue per stirpes or shall be paid and delivered to the said Lillian T. McIntosh, her executors or administrators, as determined by Russell L. McIntosh, he to have the option as to whether said portions of said trust fund shall be paid and delivered to the issue of said children or re-delivered to Lillian T. McIntosh.
If either of said children shall die without issue, the share of said trust fund which might otherwise in the discretion of said Russell L. McIntosh be paid to the issue of said child so dying, if such child had issue, shall be repaid and redelivered to Lillian T. McIntosh, her executors or administrators.

The trust instrument contained the following provision:

This indenture and the trust thereby created can, at any time, be vacated, set aside or modified by the consent and agreement in writing of the said Lillian T. McIntosh and Russell L. McIntosh, their executors or administrators, and without the consent of the said Fidelity Trust Company or of any beneficiaries hereunder vested or contingent.

It was also provided in the trust instrument that the corporate trustee should account annually to petitioner as to the amount o.f income turned over by it to Russell L. McIntosh, the other trustee, and that Russell L. McIntosh should not account to the Fidelity Trust Co. or anyone else for expenditure of income by him.

Petitioner insists that under all the facts existing Russell L. McIntosh was a beneficiary of the trust which could be revoked only with his consent; and that therefore the trust was irrevocable under section 166 of the Revenue Act of 1928 and decisions, and the income not taxable to her. It is not contended, as we understand it, that Russell L. McIntosh was a beneficiary of the trust by reason of having been named as such in the instrument either individually or as one of a class, but because in the operation and administration of the trust certain advantages flow to him. Under the law of ISTew Jersey, where he lived, it was his duty under penalty of law to support and provide for the children, the primary beneficiaries of the trust, and to the extent that the trust provided such support he was [636]*636relieved and himself therefore benefited. So it is argued that one who receives a benefit, however remote and aside from the direct intentions of a trust, must be a “ beneficiary.” It is easy to extend such argument to a point that would disclose its fallacy. If a trust should provide, for example, support for those who without such support would necessarily become inmates of a home for the poor supported by public taxes, under the theory and logic of petitioner, every taxpayer of the county would be a “ beneficiary ” of the trust because relieved of a portion of the tax. We are persuaded Congress did not mean to include in the term beneficiary ” one who might enjoy such an incidental and remote benefit under a trust. Beneficiary, as the word is used in the statute, means: “ He for whose benefit another person is enfeoffed or seized of land or tenements, or is possessed of personal property.” The term is synonymous with eestwi que trust, according to Bouvier’s Law Dictionary. (See Reinecke v. Smith, 289 U. S. 172

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Savage v. Commissioner
31 B.T.A. 633 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1934)

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Bluebook (online)
31 B.T.A. 633, 1934 BTA LEXIS 1058, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/savage-v-commissioner-bta-1934.