DocketNumber: Docket No. 736-76
Citation Numbers: 1977 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 140, 67 T.C. 924
Judges: Drennen
Filed Date: 3/10/1977
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/13/2023
*140
*924 OPINION
Respondent determined a deficiency in the estate tax liability of decedent's estate in the amount of *925 $ 1,550. The only issue for decision is whether petitioner may deduct for estate tax purposes a bequest of $ 5,000 to the Scipio Cemetery of Scipio, Ind., made in decedent's will.
All of the facts were stipulated and the case was submitted under
Decedent W. Robert Amick died a resident of Scipio, Ind., on July 16, 1973. In his will W. Robert Amick made a bequest of $ 5,000 to Scipio Cemetery. An estate tax return was filed in behalf of decedent's estate with the District Director of Internal Revenue, Indianapolis, Ind. The return reported a total gross estate of $ 741,083.51 and a taxable estate of $ 544,760.70. Among the charitable deductions claimed on the return was the bequest of $ 5,000 to Scipio Cemetery. In his notice of deficiency respondent disallowed that deduction for the reason that it was not allowable under
The town of Scipio, Ind., was laid out and plotted by one William Clapp in 1831. At that time, a cemetery was set aside by one of the original settlers, Obed Amick, containing 2 acres.
On March 16, 1858, Obed Amick and his wife Mary executed a deed purporting to convey the cemetery land to the commissioners of Jennings County, Ind. However, the deed was never recorded.
Obed Amick sold burial plots and maintained the cemetery until his death. After the death of Obed Amick, his son, Albert Amick, took over the sale of grave plots. Albert Amick was the father of Robert Amick. Albert Amick added another acre to the cemetery, which is reflected on a recorded plat in Jennings County, Ind., dated 1886.
After the death of Albert Amick in May 1922, Robert Amick and Chester A. Amick took over the sale of plots and maintenance of the cemetery. Chester A. Amick married and left*143 Indiana in August 1925.
*926 A cemetery fund was started by Martha E. Amick in 1921 by the assignment of a promissory note dated September 6, 1921, in the amount of $ 50 for the Scipio Cemetery.
The promissory note was paid off between 1935 and 1945, with the funds being received by Ernest E. Amick as secretary of the Scipio Cemetery.
Another acre was added to the cemetery by deed from Minnie D. Clapp, to the Scipio Cemetery Association, which deed is recorded in Jennings County, Ind., and dated 1937.
In 1939, the cemetery was platted by the officers and directors of the Scipio Cemetery Association, and the plat was recorded showing the cemetery to include 4 acres of land.
During the period 1924 to 1947, Robert Amick was president of the Scipio Cemetery Association, which was formed to administer the fund created in 1921 and to maintain the cemetery and sell cemetery plots. On September 10, 1947, Robert Amick, writing on behalf of the Scipio Cemetery Association, solicited contributions and recapitulated the activities in which the Scipio Cemetery Association had been involved during the previous 10 years. In that letter he indicated that the Scipio Cemetery Association had*144 deposited $ 650 with the county commissioners of Jennings County, Ind., as the beginning of an endowment fund. Help was solicited to increase the fund to $ 1,500 by January 1948.
The county auditor of Jennings County invested the fund according to the statute, and turned over the income to the Scipio Cemetery Association for care and maintenance of the cemetery. Subsequently, $ 550 of the $ 650 was returned to the Scipio Cemetery Association, and the county auditor continues to hold $ 100 of the fund which will ultimately be turned over to the Scipio Cemetery Association. The Scipio Cemetery Association has always kept the money from the sale of burial plots as a part of its maintenance fund. The Scipio Cemetery Association has always taken responsibility for maintenance of the cemetery for which it has used primarily income from the maintenance fund.
The Scipio Cemetery Association has continued to sell burial plots. As required by statute, the association has given deeds to the purchasers of plots, which are to be recorded.
*927 The personal representative of the Estate of Robert Amick paid to the commissioners of Jennings County $ 5,000, pursuant to the decedent's last*145 will and testament,
The Jennings County Commissioners in turn issued their check in that amount to the Scipio Cemetery Association to be held as part of its maintenance fund.
The tax records of Jennings County indicate that the 4 acres of the Scipio Cemetery are exempt from local taxation.
In the petition petitioner claims:
The charitable bequest qualifies as such under
In his notice of deficiency respondent determined that the bequest "is not allowable as a deduction under
(1) to or for the use of the United States, any State, any political subdivision thereof, or the District of*146 Columbia, for exclusively public purposes;
(2) to or for the use of any corporation organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, * * * no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private stockholder or individual, * * *
Respondent argues that the cemetery was not operated "exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes" within the meaning of
In
The rationale of the revenue ruling is strongly supported by
The same reasoning applies to the rather meager facts we have in this case. The bequest was undoubtedly a benevolent act and its use may have been limited to cemetery purposes but that alone does not mean that it was to be used*149 "exclusively for charitable purposes" within the meaning of *929
To be deductible under
None of the stipulated facts indicate that the Scipio Cemetery was owned by the Jennings*151 County Commissioners. The most that we can find in the stipulation is that the representative of the estate paid $ 5,000 to the commissioners of Jennings County pursuant to the will and that the Jennings County Commissioners in turn issued their check for $ 5,000 to the Scipio Cemetery Association to be held as part of its maintenance fund; and that the "Scipio Cemetery Association administers the maintenance fund without supervision by the County Commissioners of Jennings County, Indiana." *930 This would indicate that the county commissioners were simply a conduit of the bequest to the cemetery association; and there is nothing to indicate that the association was a governmental unit. Furthermore, the bequest was to the cemetery, not to the commissioners or the association. So this bequest must fail in its threshold test under
But even if we assume that the bequest was to a governmental unit, it nevertheless fails to meet the requirement that it was "for exclusively public purposes." We have found no cases in which the term "for exclusively public purposes," as used in
We conclude that the *153 bequest to the Scipio Cemetery is not deductible under
1. All section references are to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended and effective on July 16, 1973.↩
2. In the instant case, we have not been told how or under whose authority the Scipio Cemetery Association was organized, or how or by whom it was operated.↩
3. For a discussion of whether a church-owned cemetery should be classified differently for tax purposes than public or private cemeteries, see dissenting opinion in