Security-First Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner

35 B.T.A. 815, 1937 BTA LEXIS 831
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedApril 2, 1937
DocketDocket No. 64737.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 35 B.T.A. 815 (Security-First Nat'l Bank 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
Security-First Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner, 35 B.T.A. 815, 1937 BTA LEXIS 831 (bta 1937).

Opinions

OPINION.

Aenold :

This is a proceeding .for the redetermination of a deficiency in estate tax in the amount of $6,796.43. The issues are (1) whether respondent erred in determining the value at which the decedent’s remainder interest in a certain trust should be included in his gross estate, and (2) whether respondent erred in determining that the amount of a refund of income tax of the decedent for the year 1928, together with the interest thereon, should be included in the gross estate.

Petitioner’s decedent, Milton Sills, died testate at Los Angeles,. California, on September 16, 1930.

Gwladys Edith Sills was born on November 5, 1886, and on September 15, 1925, was the wife of decedent. Dorothy Gardyne Sills, daughter of decedent and Gwladys Edith Sills, was born on April 19, 1911.

On September 15, 1925, decedent entered into a written agreement with the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, whereby decedent transferred to the trust company, as trustee, and to its successors in trust, certain property and securities. Said trustee accepted the trust, and on September 16, 1930, held the trust property subject to the terms and conditions of the agreement of September 15, 1925.

The trust agreement provided that the trustee was to receive, hold, manage, sell, invest, and keep invested the trust property and securities, and to collect the income therefrom, and, after deducting the necessary expenses of administration, to pay over the net income, to the extent of $5,000 during the first year, $10,000 during the second year, and $15,000 during each of the remaining years of the trust, in equal monthly installments, to Gwladys Edith Sills, during her lifetime, and to pay over all the net income in excess thereof, at the end of each year of the life of the trust, to decedent or his estate.

The trust instrument further provided that at the death of Gwladys Edith Sills, if the daughter, Dorothy Gardyne Sills, be then deceased, all the principal of the trust should revert to, and be conveyed, transferred, and paid over by the trustee to the decedent [817]*817or his estate, and that if the said daughter should survive her mother, property and securities having an actual market value of $100,000 should be retained by the trustee under the terms and conditions of the trust instrument and the net income therefrom paid over to the daughter during her lifetime; and, further, that the balance of the principal should, in the event of the daughter’s surviving her mother revert to and be transferred by the trustee to decedent or his estate at the death of his wife, and that part of the principal so retained. in trust for the daughter should revert to and be transferred to decedent or his estate at the death of the daughter.

Decedent agreed in the trust instrument that if at any time after October 1,1927, by reason of the depreciation or default of any of the property or securities held in the trust, the total market value of the principal should be less than $300,000, he wrould, if his wife should then be living, deliver additional property and securities equal in market value to such deficiency to the trustee to be held under the terms and conditions of the trust agreement. Decedent further agreed that he would at all times have provision made by his last will and testament to the effect that if his wife survived him and if at the date of his death the total market value of all the property and securities held in the trust was less than $300,000, property and securities equal to the amount by which the said total market value should be less than $300,000, belonging to his estate, should be by his executor taken from his estate and delivered to the trust to be held under the terms and conditions of the trust instrument and to become a part of the principal of the trust.

As determined by respondent, and as alleged in the petition, the properties and securities in said trust had a total market value on September 15, 1930, of $309,733.92. The par value was $316,000, as disclosed by the list of securities in evidence.

Respondent determined that the fair market value, at the time of . death, of decedent’s interest in the annual net income of the trust in excess of $15,000 was $30,000, and included that value in the gross estate.

Respondent determined the value of decedent’s interest in the excess net income by assuming that the average earnings of the trust during the lifetime of Gwladys Edith Sills in excess of $15,000 would be $1,500 per annum and that such excess should be capitalized at 5 percent.

Respondent determined that the value at the time of death of the interest of decedent in the principal of the trust, subject to the life tenancies of Gwladys Edith and Dorothy Gardyne Sills, was $82,325.47.

[818]*818Petitioner, in the return filed for the estate of decedent, included in the gross estate all of the several interests of decedent in the trust at the time of his death at the total value of $21,500, which respondent, in determining the deficiency, increased to $112,325.47.

On or about November 20, 1930, petitioner, as executor of the decedent’s estate, filed with the collector of internal revenue at Los Angeles, California, a claim for refund of a part of the Federal income tax paid by decedent for the year 1928. On or about March 3, 1931, respondent determined that the corrected income tax liability of the decedent for the year 1928 was $16,541.28 and that decedent had made an overpayment for that year in the amount of $22,212.14. Subsequently, during the month of October 1931, respondent refunded the overpayment of $22,212.14, together with interest thereon in the amount of $1,617.73. In determining the deficiency respondent included said overpayment of tax, together with the interest thereon, as a part of the decedent’s gross estate in the full amount of $23,829.87.

Of the amount so refunded, $17,599.32 represented tax paid by the decedent on his wife’s share of his community earnings as determined by the respondent. This amount was credited against the corresponding deficiency found by the respondent against decedent’s wife in making the adjustment. The remainder of the refund, including interest thereon, was paid to petitioner in the amount of $6,471.79, as executor of the estate.

Under the first issue petitioner contends that the fair value at the date of death of all of the decedent’s interests in both the income and corpus of the trust was not in excess of $21,500, and that respondent erred in determining the value to be $112,325.47.

That decedent’s interest in the excess income and his reversionary interest in the corpus, subject to the rights of the beneficiaries to receive the specified income for life, constituted valuable property rights is admitted by both parties. That the fair value of such property rights at the date of death should be included in the decedent’s gross estate is also conceded by the parties. And it is further agreed that the proper method of determining the amount of such value is to reduce the value of the property rights to their present worth at the date of decedent’s death on the basis of the life expectancies of the life tenants as ascertained by the generally recognized mortality tables. The use of such method is provided for in respondent’s Regulations 70, article 13, and has been approved by both the Board and the courts in many cases. See Simpson v. United States, 252 U. S. 547; Ithaca Trust Co. v.

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35 B.T.A. 1071 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)
Security-First Nat'l Bank v. Commissioner
35 B.T.A. 815 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
35 B.T.A. 815, 1937 BTA LEXIS 831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/security-first-natl-bank-v-commissioner-bta-1937.