Thornley v. Commissioner

2 T.C. 220, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 25, 1943
DocketDocket No. 105554
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 2 T.C. 220 (Thornley 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
Thornley v. Commissioner, 2 T.C. 220, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118 (tax 1943).

Opinions

OPINION.

HaeRon, Judge:

Issue 1. — The question arises under section 22 (b) (2) of the Revenue Act of 1936.1 See respondent’s regulation construing this section.2 Petitioner received payments from insurance companies in the taxable year under an arrangement whereby he is to-receive periodical payments during a limited number of years. Respondent has determined that the payments received in the taxable year are annuities. The broad question under-this issue is whether the payments are annuities within the meaning which the Congress has intended that term to have in section 22 (b) (2).

The term annuity is variously defined. For a discussion of the various definitions given to the term.see Commonwealth v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 98 Atl. 1072; In re Thornton's Estate, 243 N. W. 389; Bodine v. Commissioner, 103 Fed. (2d) 982. But the problem presented by the issue here is to determine the meaning which Congress intended the term annuity to have for the particular purpose of the statute.

Congress was concerned with the increasing tendency to purchase annuities. Under the law as it was prior to 1934, income tax upon income realized from investments in annuities was postponed indefinitely. It was believed that the tax on annuity receipts to the extent that they represent income should not be postponed.3 The rule as adopted in section 22 (b) (2) is to be applied to amounts received on annuities under annuity contracts and also to amounts received as annuities under endowment contracts. But the terms of section 22 (b) (2) as it had appeared in the Revenue Act of 1932, and earlier acts, were not amended in their entirety. Section 22 (b) (2) in the Revenue Act of 1934, in the first sentence, still excludes from gross income “amounts received” under a life insurance or an endowment contract, other than at death and other than annuities, until the amounts received in the taxable year, wThen added to the amounts received in earlier years, equal the premiums or consideration paid. Thus the statute envisioned some types of periodical installment payments under a life insurance or endowment contract upon which income tax was to be postponed until the taxpayer recovered his capital investment. The statute does not appear to contain any definitions, and yet that is not entirely true. The statute speaks of (1) ‘•'•amownts received” which are to be excluded from gross income, and (2) “amounts received!” which are to be included in gross income. Amounts in the second class are described, if not defined, as '•‘■amounts received as an annuity A The rule which sometimes aids in the construction of statutes, expressio unius et exclusio alterious, has some application here because if “amounts received” do not fall within the second class, they are not to be included in gross income, and the formula prescribed for determining how much is to be included in gross income has no application to “amounts received” which fall in the first class. Even so, we do hot need to resort to a rule of implication in the construction of section 22 (b) (2). The statute refers to two classes of “amounts received,” and the second class, being the-only one defined, is narrower than the first class in our opinion, and that which does not fall within the second class must fall within the first class.

Congress deemed it sufficient to use the phrase “as an annuity” to define the class of receipts which is to be included in gross income in part. But the evident variety of meanings given to the term annuity, or the loose use of that term, leaves room for argument. It is necessary to inquire, therefore, what kind of receipts Congress had in mind when it referred to “amounts received as an annuity.” The reports of the committees provide much in answer to the question. It is said that “Payments to annuitants are, in fact, based upon mortality tables which purport to reflect a rate of return sufficient to enable the annuitant to recover his cost and in addition thereto a low rate of return on his investment.” (See footnote No. 3, supra.) This has received explanation in Taxable Income, Magill (1936), p. 375, where it is said:

It is well known that an annuity is calculated to yield a recipient who lives out his expectancy a total amount equal to the consideration paid, plus interest thereon. Hence, each annual payment, from the actuarial point of view, is made up partly of a return of capital and partly of income.

We think it is made very clear in the committee reports and in the Congressional hearings (see Seidman’s Legislative History of Federal Income Tax Laws (1938), pp. 295-299), that Congress meant the phrase “amounts received as an annuity” to have the meaning which insurance companies and actuaries customarily give to the phrase; or, more particularly, to mean amounts computed with reference to the age and sex of the insured, or payee, and with reference to life or lives. In Life Contingencies by E. F. Spurgeon, published by the Institute of Actuaries, London, 1922, at p. 31, it is said that “A Life Annuity, often called simply an Annuity, is a series of payments depending upon the continuance of a given life or combination of lives.” If that is the meaning of “amounts received as annuities” in section 22 (b) (2), then the other class, the first class-, of “amounts received” must mean, under the exelusio rule, amounts computed without reference to the life, age, or sex of the payee; amounts which are not based upon mortality tables; amounts in the determination of which there is no calculation which takes into consideration the possibility that the recipient will live out his expectancy.

Here we are dealing with endowment policies, as will be explained hereinafter. Under the terms of those policies, the insured is given several options under which he may receive the proceeds of the policies. The several options are substantially the same in both the Berkshire and the Phoenix policies, arid so we refer to the options in the Berkshire policies for convenience. The payee can elect to receive the proceeds under option A, in installments for a definite number of years, under which option the periodical amounts which $1,000 will yield are computed without refeernce to age, sex, or life expectancy ; under option B, in installments continuous for life; and under option D, in annuity payments for life, under both of which the amount of the payment is computed with reference to the age of the payee, and under D, in addition, with reference to the sex of the payee. Thus it is seen that in the policies involved one class of payments is called “annuity payments” and others are not; and the amounts of certain payments are computed with reference to the life expectancy of the payee based upon mortality tables, while others are not. According to our understanding, practically all insurance companies offer to the payee the same or similar classes of options under which to receive the proceeds of policies. It is a reasonable conclusion, therefore, that Congress used the phrase “amounts received as an annuity” with the knowledge that insurance companies distinguish certain kinds of payments, called annuity payments, from other kinds of payments which are computed without reference to life expectancy and mortality tables.

So much for background discussion. Against this background a discussion of the facts takes on added significance and the question may be decided with more regard for the realities of the situation involved.

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Bluebook (online)
2 T.C. 220, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thornley-v-commissioner-tax-1943.