1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*89
Decedent agreed by a statement at the end of her husband's will to permit her share of California community property in which she had an existing vested interest to pass under her husband's will into a trust from which she was to receive 50 percent of the income for her life with the other 50 percent of income during her life and the corpus after her death going to the children and grandchildren of decedent and her deceased husband. Decedent's husband died in 1942 and under the then applicable revenue laws the entire community property was included in his taxable estate.
50 T.C. 667">*668 OPINION
Respondent determined a deficiency in the estate tax of the Estate of Fannie Bomash, deceased, in the amount of $ 17,074.59. The issue for decision is whether decedent transferred her community property interest which had passed into a trust established under the will1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*92 of her predeceased husband under such circumstances as to cause the fair market value thereof at the date of her death to be included in whole or in part in her taxable estate under
All of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly.
Fannie Bomash (hereinafter referred to as the decedent) died intestate, a resident of Los Angeles, Calif., on September 21, 1962.
Julian Bomash, decedent's son and petitioner herein, was appointed administrator of the Estate of Fannie Bomash, and, at the time of the filing of the petition in this case, resided in Los Angeles, Calif.
The estate tax return for the Estate of Fannie Bomash was filed with the district director of internal revenue at Los Angeles, Calif., on October 1, 1963, and the tax shown thereon to be due was paid.
Decedent was the widow of Louis Bomash, who died a resident of Los Angeles, Calif., on November 22, 1942. The will of Louis Bomash was admitted to probate on December 21, 1942. All of the property disposed of by the will of Louis Bomash was community1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*93 property under the laws of the State of California, in which decedent Fannie Bomash had a present, existing, and equal interest.
The will of Louis Bomash dated September 16, 1941, provided in part as follows:
Third: I declare that all property in which at the date hereof I have any interest or which at this date stands in the name of myself or of myself and wife, other than property held in joint tenancy, if any, is our community property, and that it is my intention to dispose not only of my separate property, if any, and my share of the community property, but of the entire community estate.
* * * *
Fifth: All of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, of every kind and nature and wheresoever situated, over which I have testamentary control (hereinafter termed the "TRUST ESTATE"), to my son Julian Bomash, IN TRUST, to hold, manage and distribute as hereinafter provided.
50 T.C. 667">*669 (a) All the net income available for distribution shall be paid in monthly or other convenient installments to the persons and in the proportions as follows:
1. Fifty (50%) percent of the balance thereof to my beloved wife, Fannie, during her life.
2. Fifteen (15%) percent of said balance to my son, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*94 Julian, during the life of my wife, and thereafter or in the event my wife should die before the trust herein be established, Thirty (30%) percent thereof.
3. Fifteen (15%) percent of said balance to my daughter, Irma, during the life of my wife, and thereafter or in the event my wife should die before the trust herein be established, Thirty (30%) percent thereof.
4. Fifteen (15%) percent of said balance to my grandson, Arnold Donald, during the life of my wife, and thereafter or in the event my wife should die before the trust herein be established, Thirty (30%) percent thereof.
5. Five (5%) percent of said balance to my granddaughter, Gloria, during the life of my wife, and thereafter or in the event my wife should die before the trust herein be established, Ten (10%) percent thereof.
(b) Upon the death of my wife, or upon my granddaughter, Gloria, arriving at the age of thirty (30), which ever be later, unless the trust herein created shall be sooner terminated under the provisions herein contained, my said trustee shall apportion the trust estate, without being required to make a physical segregation thereof, except to the extent necessary to make distribution, into the following1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*95 shares, and shall distribute the then remaining corpus of the trust, to the persons, and in the proportions as follows:
1. Thirty (30%) percent thereof, to my son Julian.
2. Thirty (30%) percent thereof, to my daughter Irma.
3. Thirty (30%) percent thereof, to my grandson Arnold Donald.
4. Ten (10%) percent thereof, to my granddaughter Gloria.
* * * *
Sixth: To carry out the purposes of this trust, said Trustee is vested with the following powers and discretions, in addition to any now or hereafter conferred by law effecting the trust and the trust estate.
(a) To retain in trust, in the form in which received, for such time as he shall deem proper, without liability for any depreciation in value thereof or loss resulting therefrom, any securities, investments or other property, real or personal, received by said trustee upon distribution to him of the trust estate, whether or not the same be legal for the investment of trust funds in the State of California.
(b) To have full power to sell, assign, convey, exchange, transfer, mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber, lease for terms within or beyond the term of this trust, convert, control and manage all of the property constituting 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*96 the trust estate, both real and personal, upon such terms and conditions as in his absolute judgment may seem best and proper.
* * * *
(f) To have full power and authority, in his sole and absolute discretion and before the time herein provided for the termination of the trust, to sell any portion or all of my trust estate, and as he in his sole discretion may elect either to reinvest the proceeds of such sale, or to distribute the same to the persons, and in the proportions hereinabove provided for the distribution of the income of my trust estate.
Following the attestation clause on the will of Louis Bomash, is a 50 T.C. 667">*670 statement subscribed by decedent, on the same day that the will was executed, which reads as follows:
I, FANNIE BOMASH, hereby certify that I have read the foregoing Will of my husband, and fully understanding said Will and that my husband thereby disposes not only of his separate property, but also of our community property now owned or hereafter to be acquired, if any, including my half thereof, and being fully satisfied with its provisions, I hereby elect to accept and acquiesce in the provisions of said Will, waiving all claims to my share of any community1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*97 property disposed of by said Will, but not including his property exempt from execution, my right to a family allowance out of his estate during the probate administration thereon. This election and waiver is not a grant or release of my right, title, interest or estate in any of our community property, now owned or hereafter to be acquired, and shall be effective and valid for any purpose only after the decease of my husband, and upon the conditions precedent that said Will shall be duly admitted to probate by a Court of competent jurisdiction, and that it shall not be successfully contested, or probate thereof revoked.
The will made no provision in the event that decedent, Fannie Bomash, should withdraw her acceptance of the will prior to Louis Bomash's death.
The property which passed into the trust created under the will of Louis Bomash had a total value of $ 86,290.44, of which $ 41,327.19 (or 47.89 percent) represented Louis' share of the community estate, and $ 44,963.25 (or 52.11 percent) represented decedent's share of the community estate. The difference between the two figures results from the deduction of specific legacies made by his will and administration expenses1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*98 from Louis' share of the community property before its transfer to the trust.
The value of one-half of the corpus of the trust created under the will of Louis Bomash was $ 65,800.03 as of the date of decedent's death. Date of death valuation was elected on decedent's estate tax return.
A Federal estate tax return was filed for the Estate of Louis Bomash after his death in 1942 and the tax shown thereon to be due was paid. The total value of the entire community property of Louis and Fannie Bomash was included in the taxable estate of Louis Bomash in accordance with the provision of
In the estate tax return filed for the Estate of Fannie Bomash, petitioner included the accrued income which was due to decedent from the trust created in1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*99 accordance with the will of Louis Bomash, but no portion of the corpus of the trust was included.
50 T.C. 667">*671 Respondent in his notice of deficiency determined that 50 percent of the corpus of the trust was includable in decedent's taxable estate with the explanation that within the meaning of
Petitioner takes the position that all the community property of decedent and her husband, Louis Bomash, passed under her husband's will, and therefore the decedent made no transfer of property to which
1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*102 As petitioner recognizes, the case of
We have in a number of cases held that where a wife acquiesced in the disposition by her husband's will of all California community property, which community property had been acquired subsequent to 1927 and therefore was subject to the provisions of California law placing an existing and present interest in the property in the wife, such acquiescence or election constituted a transfer by the wife of her share of the community property.
The cessation of these extensive powers of the husband, even though they were powers over property which he never "owned", and the establishment in the wife of new powers of control over her share, though it was always hers, furnish appropriate occasions for the imposition of an excise tax.
The fact that the entire community property of the decedent and her deceased husband was included in his estate for the purpose of computing the estate tax due by his estate was in no way related to his will disposing of the entire community property. In fact, his will was made prior to the enactment of the statute 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*105 providing for the inclusion of all the community property in the estate of a deceased spouse except to the extent that it was attributable to services or separate property of the surviving spouse. As the law existed prior to 1942 and after 1948 the decedent's share of the community property would not have been includable in her husband's taxable estate. See
Petitioner takes the position that if we conclude that decedent did make a transfer of her share of the community property in 1942, she retained an interest in only 50 percent of the income from the property transferred and therefore only one-half of the property she transferred, reduced by any consideration she received for the transfer which would be recognizable under
50 T.C. 667">*674 Respondent takes the position that although by the wording of Louis Bomash's will and decedent's statement agreeing thereto, decedent retained a 50-percent income interest for life in all the property included in the trust created by the will of Louis Bomash, in substance she retained the income from1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*107 the total interest in one-half of the community property. 3
1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*108 Respondent cites no authority for his position nor have we found any. The property that composed the trust was intermingled, it was subject to broad powers of the trustee to deal with it, and it constituted a total trust estate and not divisible parts. It was one trust and not two trusts, and under the will of Louis Bomash, it was to be treated and managed as one trust. We, therefore, conclude that decedent by her transfer completely intermingled her property with the property passing under her deceased husband's will and since she had a 50-percent income interest in the whole trust she retained only 50 percent of the income from the property which she transferred to the trust. Since she retained only 50 percent of the income from the property she transferred to the trust, under the provisions of
Petitioner takes the 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*109 position that if we conclude that decedent made a transfer which is subject to any extent to the provisions of
In discussing whether the income interest which the wife acquired in that part of the trust which had consisted of her husband's portion of community property was consideration for her transfer of property to the trust, we stated in
Lillian transferred her portion of the relevant community property outright to the trust created by Silas. She received in return a life estate in the entire corpus. By dint of
In
Respondent in the instant case argues that the 50-percent life income interest which decedent had in Louis Bomash's property was no consideration for decedent's transfer of her property to a trust in which she received only a 50-percent income interest and further argues that not only should there be no reduction under
While section 302(d) speaks of a decedent having made a transfer of property with enjoyment subject to change by exercise of power to alter, amend or revoke in the decedent, it clearly covers a case where the decedent1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*114 by paying a quid pro quo has caused another to make a transfer of property with enjoyment subject to change by exercise of such power by the decedent. See
While there may have been a type of consideration1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*115 which persuaded decedent to transfer her share of the community property to the trust created under her deceased husband's will, in our opinion there was no consideration within the meaning of
Decedent did receive a 50-percent income interest in the property transferred to the trust by the will of Louis Bomash. However, this income interest was not necessarily in consideration for her transfer of a greater amount of property to the trust than was transferred by her husband's will where she had only a 50-percent income interest in the entire trust corpus. Her receipt of 50 percent of the income from the property transferred to the trust by the will of Louis Bomash might well have been in consideration for her relinquishment of a 50-percent income interest in her property to the other trust beneficiaries.
Irrespective of the absence of evidence in the record to so indicate, petitioner contends that decedent's income rights from the portion of the corpus of the trust which had been Louis' share of the community property prior to his death was consideration for decedent's transfer of her property to the trust. If we were to accept petitioner's interpretation of what1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 89">*117 constitutes consideration under
Petitioner states that decedent was 66 years old in 1942 and that the value of decedent's right to 50 percent of the income from Louis' property which went into the trust under his will, computed in accordance with respondent's life expectancy tables, is $ 6,644.35. If the amount of $ 6,644.35 were to be considered to be consideration for decedent's 50 T.C. 667">*678 transfer to the trust, such amount subtracted from the fair market value at the date of decedent's death of 52.11 percent of the trust corpus, leaves an amount greater than the fair market value of the amount of corpus applicable to decedent's retained income interest at the date of her death, i.e., 26.06 percent of the fair market value of the total corpus of the trust at the date of decedent's death. Therefore there is no basis for a reduction in the amount includable in decedent's estate under the provision of
In our view the reciprocal trust theory of
Here the situation is more comparable to a husband and wife each contributing property to a trust for the benefit of their children but with the provision for 50 percent of the income to go to the wife only for life. The factual situation involved in
We therefore conclude that there should be includable in petitioner's taxable estate the value at the date of decedent's death of 26.06 percent of the corpus of the trust created under the will of Louis Bomash to which she transferred her share of the community property.
1. All references are to the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 unless otherwise indicated.↩
2.
Upon the death of either husband or wife, one-half of the community property belongs to the surviving spouse; the other half is subject to the testamentary disposition of the decedent, and in the absence thereof goes to the surviving spouse, subject to the provisions of sections 202 and 203 of this code.↩
3. As pointed out in our Findings of Fact decedent's portion of the community property that went into the trust was actually over one-half of the total property in the trust. Respondent states that since decedent retained only an income interest in one-half of the total property of the trust, the excess amount which decedent transferred was in effect a gift by decedent to her children. Petitioner does not discuss the fact that since the decedent was given a 50-percent income interest in the total trust, the amount includable in her estate under his theory should be the fair market value at the date of decedent's death of one-half of 52.11 percent of the trust. We will therefore continue to discuss the problem as if the property transferred to the trust by decedent and by the will of Louis Bomash was each 50 percent of the total property in the trust, recognizing, however, that to the extent petitioner's theory is accepted, some adjustment should be made because of decedent's contribution to the trust being 52.11 percent thereof.↩
4.
(a) In General. -- If any one of the transfers, trusts, interests, rights, or powers enumerated and described in sections 2035 to 2038, inclusive, and section 2041 is made, created, exercised, or relinquished for a consideration in money or money's worth, but is not a bona fide sale for an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth, there shall be included in the gross estate only the excess of the fair market value at the time of death of the property otherwise to be included on account of such transaction, over the value of the consideration received therefor by the decedent.↩
5. In