Court Opinion

ID: 9651624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:29:11.01822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:36.799097
License: Public Domain

LINDLEY, District Judge
(dissenting in part).
I am of the opinion that the District Court was correct in its conclusion that where a gift is made in trust, for the purpose of determining the number of exemptions allowable under the gift tax law, the donee is the beneficiary rather than the trust. It seems to me that any other construction does violence to the congressional intent and promotes evasion of taxes. If the trust and not the beneficiary is the donee, then a donor may, by creating ten separate trusts, that is, creating ten trusts in ten separate persons as trustees and by designating the same beneficiary in each trust, give $50,-000 to one donee without payment of any gift tax. This result, I think, is not within the express purport or implication of the legislation. Rather the Congress meant to prevent tax-free donations in excess of $5,000 in any recipient.