JEWETT et ux. v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE (455 U.S. 305)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 23, 1982 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 455 U.S. 305 · 102 S. Ct. 1082
- Decided
- February 23, 1982
- Term
- October Term 1981
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. A trust beneficiary’s refusal to accept ownership of property may constitute an indirect gift to a successor in interest subject to federal gift tax liability. 26 U. S. C. §§2501, 2511. Under Treasury Regulation §25.2511-l(c), however, such a refusal is not subject to tax if it is effective under local law and made “within a reasonable time after knowledge of the existence of the transfer.” The petitioner husband (hereafter petitioner) in this case executed disclaimers of a contingent interest in a testamentary trust 33 years after that interest was created, but while it was still contingent. The narrow question presented is whether the “transfer” referred to in the Regulation occurs when the interest is created, as the Government contends, or at a later time when the interest either vests or becomes possessory, as argued by petitioner. Petitioner’s grandmother, Margaret Weyerhaeuser Jew-ett, died in 1939 leaving the bulk of her substantial estate in a testamentary trust. Her will, executed in Massachusetts, provided that the trust income should be paid to petitioner’s grandfather during his life, and thereafter to petitioner’s parents. Upon the death of the surviving parent, the principal was to be divided “into equal shares or trusts so that there shall be one share for each child of my said son [petitioner’s father] then…
Excerpt of a 47,490-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.