Waldstein v. Commissioner

35 T.C. 156, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 31, 1960
DocketDocket No. 65776
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 35 T.C. 156 (Waldstein 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
Waldstein v. Commissioner, 35 T.C. 156, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31 (tax 1960).

Opinion

OPINION.

FORRESTER, Judge:

Respondent lias determined a deficiency of $18,539.13 in the estate tax of the decedent, Ruth Waldstein. The question for our decision is whether funds on deposit at the Federal Reserve bank for the account of the Alien Property Custodian at the time of decedent’s death were excludable from decedent’s gross estate under section 863(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939,1 as property not situated in the United States.

All of the facts have been stipulated and are so found.

Decedent died intestate about October 3, 1944, in a German concentration camp in Holland. At all times material herein she was a nonresident alien not engaged in business in the United States.

Decedent was the daughter of Lina Joachim (hereinafter referred to as “Lina”) who was also a nonresident alien not engaged in business in the United States. Lina was a remainderman of a trust created under the will of her brother who died domiciled in New York in 1935. When the brother’s wife died in 1941 Lina became entitled to her remainder interest. However, since Lina then resided “in enemy or enemy occupied territory,” the Surrogate of the Surrogate’s Court of New York County decreed on July 3, 1942, that the trustee pay Lina’s share of the trust funds, totaling $168,361.80, into court by paying the funds to the treasurer of the City of New York “for the benefit of Lina Joachim or such other person or persons who may hereafter appear to be entitled thereto.” The funds were so paid, on about August 12, 1942, and the next day, after properly marking his records, the treasurer of the City of New York, deposited the funds in the Manufacturers Trust Company, a banking institution doing business in the city of New York, in a separate account entitled: “The Treasurer of the City of New York Court and Trust Funds, Special Account (Time).”

On about December 11, 1942, the Alien Property Custodian of the United States issued a vesting order with respect to Lina’s remainder interest in the trust. Lina died in a German concentration camp on May 28, 1943. On February 4, 1944, the original Surrogate’s Court decree was amended and authorized the Custodian to withdraw the funds on deposit with the New York bank. On about March 21, 1944, the Alien Property Custodian thus received $165,591.52 representing Lina’s remainder interest after lawful charges and commissions of the city treasurer. Pursuant to section 12 of the Trading With the Enemy Act, the Alien Property Custodian on the same date deposited the funds with the Treasurer of the United States who in turn deposited them in the New York branch of the Federal Reserve bank. The funds were there held in a general account for the account of the Custodian and the funds so remained at the date of decedent’s death on October 3, 1944.

Under Lina’s will decedent took 56 per cent and Lina’s son, Richard Joachim (decedent’s brother and the individual petitioner in the instant case, hereinafter called Richard), took 44 per cent of Lina’s estate. Decedent’s gross share amounted to $94,282.60 and her right to this amount constituted the only asset she owned at her death. Richard is decedent’s sole heir.

In May 1951, Richard secured the return of $81,467.21 of Lina’s funds under the authority of section 32 of the Trading With the Enemy Act. The balance remaining in the fund was reserved for tax purposes.

In August 1951, Richard filed with the collector of internal revenue, second district of New York, a nonresident alien’s estate tax return (Form 706NA) on behalf of Lina’s (his mother’s) estate. On such return he disclosed (for information purposes) Lina’s interest in the funds but claimed such interest was, by virtue of section 863(b), not includible in Lina’s gross estate. In the case of this return, respondent proposed a deficiency of $35,213.19 against the Estate of Lina Joachim, Deceased. Thereafter, Richard filed a petition in this Court as follows: Estate of Lina Joachim, Deceased, Richard H. Joachim, Beneficiary, Petitioner, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent. In such proceeding, we held (July 14, 1954) that section 863(b) was applicable and that the respondent had erred in including the funds as part of Lina’s gross estate. Estate of Lina Joachim, 22 T.C. 875. The Commissioner acquiesced in such decision, 1955-2 C.B. 7.

Subsequent to May 1951, Richard has secured the return of all of the remaining funds from his mother’s and sister’s estates which were vested in the Alien Property Custodian except the sum of $19,000 withheld as a reserve for the approximate amount of the deficiency determined by the respondent in this case.

As decedent’s sole beneficiary, Richard filed under protest Form 706NA (nonresident alien’s estate tax return) for the petitioner on March 15, 1955, with the collector of internal revenue, second district of New York. On such return he disclosed the existence of decedent’s interest in the funds but treated it as being not part of decedent’s gross estate. Accordingly, he reported her net estate to be zero.

The instant proceeding arises out of a continuation of or sequel to the train of events which gave rise to Estate of Lina Joachim, supra, and that case is not res judicata here as is urged by petitioner. Tait v. Western Md. Ry. Co., 289 U.S. 620. Decedent was the daughter of Lina Joachim. Each was a nonresident alien, not engaged in business in the United States. Under her mother’s will decedent became entitled to 56 per cent of her mother’s estate. The mother’s estate consisted solely of a remainder interest in a trust fund and the daughter’s estate consists solely of 56 per cent of that same interest. Taxability of the interest in the mother’s estate was the question we decided in Estate of Lina Joachim, supra, while taxability of the 56 per cent interest in the daughter’s estate is the question now before us.

There is only one pertinent difference in the facts underlying the two situations. The entire interest had, under the order of the Surrogate’s Court, been deposited in the Manufacturers Trust Company on August 13, 1942, “for the 'benefit of Lina J oachim or such other person or persons who may hereafter appear to be entitled thereto.” Thereafter, on December 11,1942, Vesting Order No. 490 issued with respect to such interest of Lina Joachim. The next event was Lina Joachim’s death which occurred on May 28, 1943. Thereafter, on March 21, 1944, the Alien Property Custodian withdrew such remainder interest from Manufacturers Trust Company and deposited it with the Treasurer of the United States, who, in turn, deposited it in the New York branch of the Federal Beserve bank, where it has remained at all times since. The next event is the death of Buth Waldstein which occurred on October 3, 1944.

The above recitation of the facts in their chronological sequence demonstrates that the only fundamental difference between the question for decision in the mother’s estate and the question for decision here is that in the case of the mother the funds were still on deposit with the Manufacturers Trust Company at the time of her death, while here they were on deposit with the New York branch of the Federal Beserve bank at the time of decedent’s death.

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Related

Waldstein v. Commissioner
35 T.C. 156 (U.S. Tax Court, 1960)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 T.C. 156, 1960 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waldstein-v-commissioner-tax-1960.