Thorrez v. Commissioner

31 T.C. 655, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 5
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1958
DocketDocket No. 57312
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 31 T.C. 655 (Thorrez 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
Thorrez v. Commissioner, 31 T.C. 655, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 5 (tax 1958).

Opinion

OPINION.

Harron, Judge:

Isstie 1.

The trustee of each trust is directed during the minority of each beneficiary to accumulate the income and to reinvest such accumulated income as part of the corpus. When a beneficiary becomes 21 years of age, the trustee is directed to pay him his share of the corpus, including the accumulated income or the assets in which such income had been invested. During the minority of a beneficiary, the trustee may pay to a beneficiary, or his legal guardian, out of the trust estate such sums of money as the trustee deems advisable, “if” such beneficiary “should, need money for support or education amd is u/nable to provide such money” (Italics supplied.)

The sole question is whether the gifts to the trust were of “future interests” within the meaning of the statute and the regulation. See sec. 1003(b) (3), 1939 Code, and Eegs. 108, see. 86.11.1 If the gifts are to qualify as transfers of present interests, each beneficiary “must have the right presently to use, possess or enjoy the property,” in addition to a vested right in the trust. Fondren v. Commissioner, 324 U.S. 18, 20; Commissioner v. Disston, 325 U.S. 442; Byerson v. United States, 312 U.S. 405; and United States v. Pelzer, 315 U.S. 399. The question is not when title vests, but when enjoyment begins. Commissioner v. Sharp, 153 F. 2d 163, 164. The taxpayer claiming the exclusion under section 1003(b) (3) has the burden of showing that the value of what he claims is other than a future interest. Commissioner v. Disston, supra.

The most pertinent part of each trust instrument is the fourth article. It provides at the outset, in paragraph (b) that during the minority of the beneficiaries the trustee is to accumulate the net income, make reinvestment thereof, and hold the assets in which income is invested as part of the corpus. Pursuant to paragraph (d), the trustee is to hold all of the corpus of the trust until a beneficiary becomes 21 years of age, at which time the trustee shall pay him his share of the corpus (which will include the investments of the accumulated income). In paragraph (c) there is an exception to the direction to the trustee to accumulate the income and hold the corpus during the minority of each beneficiary, and the making of such exception is subject to the existence of two specified contingencies, namely, (1) that a beneficiary shall be in need for money for support or education, and (2) that the beneficiary shall be unable to provide such money. If these contingencies shall arise, the trustee is given the discretion to make distributions from the trust estate to a beneficiary, or his legal guardian, for the support or education of the beneficiary, of such sums of money as he deems advisable. In making distributions from a trust, in his discretion, a trustee is not limited to making a distribution from income; he may make a distribution out of the “trust estate,” which, of course, includes trust principal.

At the time the trusts were created, all of the beneficiaries were minors; their ages ranged from 4 months to 7 years; and there had not been an appointment of a legal guardian for any beneficiary. There is no evidence showing that at the time the trusts were created any beneficiary was in need of money for support or education. The evidence shows that from the time the trusts were created until 1957, a period of about 6 years, no payments were made from any of the 4 trusts for the support Or education of any beneficiary, and that in 1957 and 1958 disbursements were made from only two of the trusts, which were for life insurance premiums and day school tuition.

Under the rules of the Fondren and Disston cases, supra, the gifts clearly were gifts of future interests, unless it can be said that this case is distinguishable because under each trust a parent of the beneficiaries is the trustee. See, also, the following cases which set forth tests of whether gifts are of present or future interests, and which held that gifts were of future interests: Welch v. Paine, 120 F. 2d 141; Commissioner v. Brandegee, 123 F. 2d 58; Welch v. Paine, 130 F. 2d 990; Helvering v. Blair, 121 F. 2d 945; Commissioner v. Taylor, 122 F. 2d 714; Commissioner v. Phillips’ Estate, 126 F. 2d 851; Commissioner v. Gardner, 127 F. 2d 929; United States v. Pelzer, supra; Ryerson v. United States, supra; Willis D. Wood, 16 T.C. 962; Frances McGuire Rassas, 17 T.C. 160, affd. 196 F. 2d 611; Celia Goldstein, 26 T.C. 506; Abraham M. Katz, 27 T.C. 783; William Goehner, 28 T.C. 542; and Fred J. LaFortune, 29 T.C. 479. The following statement in Fondren v. Commissioner, supra, is pertinent here:

Accordingly, it has been held that if the income of a trust is required to be distributed periodically, as annually, but distribution of the corpus is deferred, the gift of the income is one of a present interest, that of the corpus one in futuro. Fisher v. Commissioner, 132 F. 2d 383; Sensenbrenner v. Commissioner, 134 F. 2d 883. A fortiori, if income is to be accumulated and paid over with the corpus at a later time, the entire gift is of a future interest, although upon specified contingency some portion or all of the fund may be paid over earlier. The contingency may be the exercise of the trustee’s discretion, either absolute or contingent. It may also be the need of the beneficiary, not existing when the trust or gift takes effect legally, but arising later upon anticipated though unexpected conditions, either to create a duty in the trustee to pay over or to permit him to do so in his discretion.

The narrow question in this case is whether each beneficiary received in 1951, when the gifts to the trusts were made, the right presently to use, possess, or enjoy the income or the principal of a trust because his parent was trustee of the trust, or because of any provision contained in paragraph (c) of the fourth article of each trust. Petitioner cites no authority or any persuasive reason why the fact that a parent of beneficiaries was the trustee serves to make the gifts in question ones of present interests. Petitioner’s contention suggests that his position is that it can be implied, merely because a parent of beneficiaries was the trustee, that each beneficiary could demand at any time that a distribution should be made of all or any part of income, accumulated income, or principal. Such contention cannot be sustained.

Under the Thorrez trusts no one was empowered to make a demand at any time for distribution of all or part of the income or principal of a trust. The lack of such power is decisive. A provision in a trust which specifies that only upon the existence of a contingency some portion of a trust fund may be distributed to a beneficiary cannot be construed to constitute clear and unambiguous language empowering a beneficiary or his legal guardian to demand at any time a distribution of income or principal of the trust for or to the minor, even though the trustee happens to be a parent of the minor. In Fred J. LaFortune, supra at 486, the following is stated:

A trustee, simply because be is a benefieiary’s parent, cannot be said to stand in tbe shoes of the beneficiary. See Frances McGuire Rassas, 17 T.C. 160, affd. 196 F. 2d 611, and Welch v.

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Thorrez v. Commissioner
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 T.C. 655, 1958 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thorrez-v-commissioner-tax-1958.