DocketNumber: Docket No. 4138-62.
Filed Date: 2/23/1966
Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 11/21/2020
Memorandum Opinion
FAY, Judge: Respondent determined a deficiency in petitioner's estate tax in the amount of $129,683.28.
The sole issue for decision is whether the entire corpus of a trust created in 1905 by Sarah F. Bremer, deceased (hereinafter referred to as decedent), wherein she reserved the income for life and a general testamentary power of appointment over the corpus is includable in her*249 gross estate under
All of the facts are stipulated and are incorporated herein by this reference.
The New England Merchants National Bank of Boston (successor to the New England Trust Company) is the executor under the will of the decedent, who died on July 6, 1958. The estate tax return for the Estate of Sarah F. Bremer was filed with the district director of internal revenue, Boston, Massachusetts.
On July 27, 1905, decedent executed a trust indenture (creating a trust) and transferred certain property to Alfred Bowditch and S. Parker Bremer as trustees. Under the terms of the indenture, decedent reserved to herself the right to receive the net income from the trust for her life and a general testamentary power of appointment enabling her to designate the taker of the principal after her death. The trust indenture provided for the disposition of the trust principal if the decedent failed to exercise the above-said power of appointment. With the exception of the reserved testamentary power of appointment, *250 the indenture contained no provision authorizing or permitting decedent to alter or amend any of its terms in any manner.
On June 13, 1918, decedent and the New England Trust Company (now the New England Merchants National Bank of Boston) executed an agreement under which decedent appointed the New England Trust Company as successor trustee to Alfred Bowditch.
On December 31, 1947, decedent executed a will in which she exercised the testamentary power of appointment reserved to her under the 1905 trust (1) by directing in article Twentieth of said will that certain cash bequests be paid from the trust, (2) by directing in article Twenty-First that certain taxes be paid from the trust property, and (3) by appointing in article Twenty-Third that 36/60 (60 percent) of the balance of the trust property remaining after payment of sums under articles Twentieth and Twenty-First be paid to certain specified persons and organizations.
Following the execution of the above-mentioned will, decedent on December 31, 1947, executed an instrument entitled "RELEASE OF POWER" by which she irrevocably released all of her right, title, and interest in the general testamentary power of appointment*251 referred to heretofore over the portion of the trust property which was not appointed in the will.
Decedent died on July 6, 1958, leaving as her last will the one executed on December 31, 1947. The same will was admitted to probate in the Norfolk County Probate Court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts stated, in
Petitioner included in decedent's gross estate the portion (60 percent) of the trust corpus over which decedent, in her will dated December 31, 1947, exercised her testamentary power of appointment. Petitioner did not include in decedent's gross estate the portion (40 percent) of the trust corpus over which decedent, in the above-said will, did not exercise her testamentary power of appointment over which she released said power by inter vivos instrument dated December 31, 1947.
In his notice of deficiency, respondent determined that the entire value of the trust created by decedent on July 27, 1905, is includable in the decedent's gross estate pursuant to
The ultimate issue for decision is whether the entire corpus of the trust created by decedent in 1905 is includable in decedent's gross estate under
The relevant provisions of
The value of the gross estate shall include the value of all property * * * to the extent of any interest therein of which the decedent has at any time made a transfer (except in case of a bona fide sale for an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth), by trust * * * under which he has retained for his life * * *
(1) the possession or enjoyment of, or the right to the income from, the property, or
(2) the right, either alone or in conjunction with any person, to designate the persons who shall possess or enjoy the property or the income therefrom.
Petitioner contends that the "transfer" referred to in
The facts presented in the instant case bear an appreciable identity to those involved in
Decision will be entered under Rule 50.
1.
(b) Limitation on Application of General Rule. - This section shall not apply to a transfer made before March 4, 1931; nor to a transfer made after March 3, 1931, and before June 7, 1932, unless the property transferred would have been includible in the decedent's gross estate by reason of the amendatory language of the joint resolution of March 3, 1931 * * *↩
2. Respondent concedes that for purposes of Massachusetts law decedent irrevocably surrendered legal title to the corpus when she executed the trust indenture in 1905.↩
3. The Court of Claims, in