1930 BTA LEXIS 2015 | B.T.A. | 1930
Lead Opinion
OPINION.
The petitioner, as executor of the last will and testament of Frederick M. Broadbent, deceased, has appealed from the action of the respondent in asserting additional estate taxes of $125.03 against that estate, alleging that in his determination of the taxable, estate the respondent erred in including community interests belonging to the widow. The case is submitted for decision upon the pleadings, which concede the basic allegation in subdivision (a) of the fifth paragraph of the petition, reading as follows:
The last will of the decedent disposed of his own estate, which, under the laws of the State of Washington, is % of the aggregate property, and further provided that if the widow would permit her property to be placed in trust and be disposed of ultimately, as directed by the decedent, she would receive the income from the whole estate. • The widow elected to take under the will.
As thus submitted we have for determination a single issue of law, viz., Does the act of a widow in placing her part of community property in a trust created by the will of her deceased husband, in consideration of a condition in said will giving her the income from the trust, which also included the interest of the decedent, vest, ad interim, her part of such property in the decedent’s estate, so as to subject it to the Federal estate tax?
' Under the Revenue Act of 1921 a tax is laid upon property belonging to the estate of a decedent which passes to others at his death and which “ after his death is subject to the payment of
There is no claim here that the deeedent required, or that the widow attempted to accomplish, a transfer of her interest in the community property to the former’s estate if, by such informal procedure as indicated, it could have been done. The only condition specified by the will was that the widow permit her property to be placed in trust, and it was this condition to so permit it to be placed that she accepted in the election made. Without passing upon any hypothesis not before us as to what might have been done had the parties so intended, it is clear, under the facts here shown, that the interests of the widow in the property put in trust passed direct from her to said trust, and that it at no time was a part of the taxable estate of the decedent.
Decision will be entered for the petitioner.