1. There can be little doubt that, within the doctrine of Helvering v. Clifford,
2. Nevertheless, we cannot . agree with the Tax Court that this case
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is like Commissioner v. Buck, 2 Cir.,
It is true that the trust agreement also provides that, after the child reaches the age of 21, the income is to be allocated by the trustees in their discretion to the wife and the child. But again we think the wife’s co-trustee would be obliged to exercise a genuine discretion; a refusal on the part of the co-trustee to distribute anything to the wife, followed by her refusal to allocate anything to the child, would bring about the intervention of a court of equity to compel distribution and to avoid an unintended accumulation of income, one indeed which would be unlawful under New York law. Real Property Law, § 61, Consol.Laws N.Y. c. 50; Personal Property Law § 16, Consol. Laws N.Y. c. 41.
In a case like this, where, only through a disregard of the purposes of the trust— a disregard which would result in judicial intervention — could the husband control the allocation of the income among members of his family, is not sufficiently like the Clifford or Buck cases to make the doctrine of those cases applicable. Nothing in those cases suggests that a wife, who has an obviously selfish adverse interest in receiving income for herself, is so lacking in independence that it is to be conclusively presumed that she will exercise her powers as a trustee in accordance with the wishes of her husband.
Helvering v. Stuart,
3. The Tax Court, having reached its decision under § 22(a), did not consider § 166, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code § 166. The Commissioner argues that the income is taxable under § 166 because the wife has no adverse interest in the corpus since she can never receive any of it, having merely a power of appointment restricted to descendants of the taxpayer. But the controlling words of § 166 are those relating to “any person not having a substantial adverse interest in the disposition of such part of the corpus
or
the income therefrom.”
4
Here the wife had a substantial adverse interest in the income. Graff v. Commissioner, 7 Cir.,
Reversed.
Notes
Fulham v. Com’r, 1 Cir.,
Cf. Gray v. Powell,
Cf. Estate of Sanford v. Com’r,
Italics added.
