Harris v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (340 U.S. 106)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 27, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 340 U.S. 106 · 71 S. Ct. 181
- Docket
- No. 14
- Argued
- October 16, 1950
- Decided
- November 27, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1950
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Clark, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Minton, Justice Burton, Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice Black
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. The federal estate tax and the federal gift tax, as held in a line of cases ending with Commissioner v. Wemyss, 324 U. S. 303, and Merrill v. Fahs, 324 U. S. 308, are construed in pari materia, since the purpose of the gift tax is to complement the estate tax by preventing tax-free depletion of the transferor’s estate during his lifetime. Both the gift tax and the estate tax exclude transfers made for “an adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth.” In the estate tax this requirement is limited to deductions for claims based upon “a promise or agreement”; but the consideration for the “promise or agreement” may not be the release of marital rights in the decedent’s property. In the Wemyss and Merrill cases the question was whether the gift tax was applicable to premarital property settlements. If the standards of the estate tax were to be applied ex proprio vigore in gift tax cases, those transfers would be taxable because there was a “promise or agreement” touching marital rights in property. We sustained the tax, thus giving “adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth” the same meaning under both statutes insofar as premarital property settlements or agreements are concerned. The present case raises the question whether Wemyss and Merrill require the imposition of the gift tax in the type…
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