United States v. John O. Irvine and First Trust National Association (511 U.S. 224)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 20, 1994 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 511 U.S. 224 · 114 S. Ct. 1473
- Decided
- April 20, 1994
- Term
- October Term 1993
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. In Jewett v. Commissioner, 455 U. S. 305 (1982), we construed the 1958 version of Treasury Regulation §25.2511-1(c) to provide that the disclaimer of a remainder interest in a trust effects a taxable gift unless the disclaimant acts within a reasonable time after learning of the transfer that created the interest. This case presents the question whether the rule is the same, under current Treasury Regulation §25.2511-l(c)(2) (Regulation), when the creation of the interest (but not the disclaimer) occurred before enactment of the federal gift tax provisions of the Revenue Act of 1932. We hold that it is. I In 1917, Lucius P. Ordway established an irrevocable inter vivos family trust, with his wife and their children as primary concurrent life income beneficiaries, to be succeeded by unmarried surviving spouses of the children and by grandchildren. The trust was to terminate upon the death of the last surviving primary income beneficiary, at which time the corpus would be distributed to Mr. Ordway’s surviving grandchildren and the issue of any grandchildren who had died before termination. When the trust terminated on June 27, 1979, the corpus was subject to division into 13 equal shares among 12 grandchildren living and the issue of one who had died. Prior to distribution, on August 23,1979, one of the grandchildren, Sally…
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