Tully v. Commissioner

48 T.C. 235, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 101
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 26, 1967
DocketDocket No. 4783-65
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 48 T.C. 235 (Tully 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
Tully v. Commissioner, 48 T.C. 235, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 101 (tax 1967).

Opinion

Scott, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner’s income tax for the calendar year 1959 in the amount of $16,061.90.

The issue for decision is whether the value of remainder interests in two irrevocable trusts executed by petitioner in 1959 constituted charitable contributions in that year to organizations described in section 170(b) (1) (A) of the Internal Eevenne Code of 1954.1

FINDINGS OF FACT

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

Petitioner is an individual who resided in New York, N.Y., at the date of the filing of the petition in this case. Her individual income tax return for the calendar year 1959 was filed with the district director of internal revenue, Manhattan District, New York, N.Y.

By instruments dated and executed on December 11,1959, petitioner established two irrevocable trusts. The principal income beneficiary under one of these trusts is James Carlton Gauld and this trust will hereinafter be referred to as the Gauld Trust. The principal income beneficiary under the other trust is Mildred Maim, and this trust will hereinafter be referred to as the Maim Trust. In both trusts petitioner is named as a secondary income beneficiary. James Carlton Gauld and Mildred Mann are both presently alive.

On December 11,1959, petitioner transferred 280 shares of common stock in Corning Glass Works to the Gauld Trust and 280 shares of such common stock to the Mann Trust. The then value of the remainder interests in the Gauld and Mann Trusts as determined by reference to the actuarial tables set forth in respondent’s regulations was determined to be $19,159.23 and $18,640.28, respectively. The Gauld Trust contains the following provision with respect to the disposition of the trust income and corpus:

SECOND: The Trustee shall hold the Trust Estate in trust until the death of the survivor of the Settlor and James Carlton Gauld, who now resides at No. 231 East 35th Street, New York, New York; shall manage, invest and reinvest the Trust Estate; shall collect and receive the income thereof; and, after deducting all charges and expenses properly payable therefrom, shall pay the net income and the principal thereof as follows1:
(A) The Trustee shall pay to the said James Carlton Gauld, at least quarter-annually, (1), until the end of the calendar year ending on December 31,1963, or until the death of the said James Carlton Gauld, whichever shall first occur, all of the net income of the Trust Estate; and (2), after December 31,1963, such portion or portions, or all, of the net income of the Trust Estate as the Trustee, in his discretion, shall deem advisable, and shall accumulate the unexpended net income, if any, for the benefit of the said James Carlton Gauld until his death; and the Trustee, from time to time, shall pay to the said James Carlton Gauld such portion or portions, or at any time all, of the accumulated net income as the Trustee, in his discretion, shall deem advisable, until the death of the said James Carlton Gauld, and, upon the death of the said James Carlton Gauld, the Trustee shall pay all of the accumulated net income then held by him, if any, to the estate of the said James Carlton Gauld.
(B) After the death of the said James Carlton Gauld, if the Settlor survives him, the Trustee shall pay all the net income of the Trust Estate to the Settlor, at least quarter-annually, until her death.
(C) Anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding, in each instance in which net income, and in each instance in which accumulated net income, would otherwise be payable to a beneficiary during his or her lifetime under the foregoing provisions of this article SECOND, the Trustee himself may apply such net income, or such accumulated net income, for the benefit of such beneficiary, if the Trustee, in his discretion, shall deem it advisable to do so.
(D) Upon the death of the survivor of the Settlor and the said James Carlton Gauld, the Trustee shall pay the principal of the Trust Estate as follows:
(1) The Trustee shall pay the said principal to such charity or charities, as hereinafter defined, and in such shares and proportions, as the Settlor may appoint by her last will and testament or codicil thereto; provided, however, that no appointment shall be made hereunder except to a corporation or corporations meeting the limitations of the Special Rule set forth in subdivision (b) (1) (A) of Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as the same may be amended.
(2) To the extent that the power of appointment set forth in the preceding subdivision (1) hereof shall not have been effectively exercised, the Trustee shall pay the said principal in equal shares to: The President and Eellows of Harvard College, a Massachusetts corporation having an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, or its successor, requesting, but not enjoining, that, if practicable, the property received by it be used by its Fogg Museum for archeological exploration and research, preferably in Sardis, Turkey; and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania corporation having an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or its successor, requesting, but not enjoining, that, if practicable, the property received by it be used by its University Museum for archeological exploration and research, preferably on the Tikal Project or other projects in Guatemala.

The Mann. Trust contains an identical provision except the name “Mildred Mann” appears in that trust wherever the name “ James Carlton Gauld” appears in the Gauld Trust.

Petitioner, on her Federal income tax return, reported adjusted gross income of $1,671,880.19, listed charitable contributions totaling $372,724.91 with a maximum deduction of $334,376.04, arrived at by applying 20 percent to her reported adjusted gross income, and listed further contributions of $171,288.26 stated to be to organizations of the type described in section 170(b) (1) (A) with a maximum deduction of $167,188.02, arrived at by applying 10 percent to her adjusted gross income, thus computing an amount of $501,564.06 which she claimed as a deduction for charitable contributions in the year 1959. The last two items shown in petitioner’s schedule of contributions in arriving at the $171,288.26 which she showed to constitute contributions to which the additional 10 percent of adjusted gross income was the applicable limitation of the deduction were the $19,159.23 value of the remainder interest in the Gauld Trust and the $18,640.28 value of the remainder interest in the Mann Trust.

Respondent in his notice of deficiency disallowed the amount of $33,699.27 of the contributions claimed by petitioner with the explanation that it had been determined that the value of the remainder interest in the Gauld and Mann Trusts “were not made to such organizations which qualify as charitable contributions under the special rule of section 170(b) (1) (A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.”

OPINION

Section 170(a) provides for the allowance of a deduction for charitable contributions as defined in section 170 (c), payment of which is made in the taxable year.

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Tully v. Commissioner
48 T.C. 235 (U.S. Tax Court, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 T.C. 235, 1967 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tully-v-commissioner-tax-1967.