Court Opinion

ID: 9649649
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 15:04:37.706409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:13.328108
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(dissenting).
This appeal involves the valuation, for Pennsylvania inheritance tax purposes, of future interests upon which inheritance tax is prepaid under Section 714(a) of the Inheritance and Estate Tax Act of 1961, Act of June 15, 1961, P.L. 373, Art. VII, § 714(a), as amended, 72 P.S. § 2485-714(a) (Supp.1975) [hereinafter the Act of 1961]. The question for decision is whether, in computing the value of such a future interest, the amount of federal and state death taxes on prior interests paid out of the corpus of the estate is to be included in the valuation of the future interest. The majority of the Court answers this question in the negative, as did the court below.1 I am persuaded that in so doing the Court disregards the unequivocal legislative answer to the contrary as contained in Section 651 of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-651. I therefore respectfully dissent.
The date of valuation of property the transfer of which is subject to the Act of 1961 is normally the date of the transferor’s death. Section 501 of the Act, 72 P.S. § 2485-501. The time of valuation of a transfer of a future interest, however, is normally the date such interest takes effect in possession and enjoyment. “The tax shall be computed upon the value of the interest at such date.” Section 506 of the Act, 72 P.S. § 2485-506. A personal representative of the decedent, or any party in interest, may, however, elect to prepay the tax on a future interest without waiting for the interest to fall in. Ibid. If an election to prepay the tax is filed within nine months of the decedent’s death the value of the future interest is its value on the date of the decedent’s death. Section *208713(a) of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-713(a) (Supp. 1975). If an election to prepay the tax is filed later than nine months after the decedent’s death and prior to the vesting of the future interest in possession and enjoyment, the value of the future interest is its value on the date of the election. Section 714(a) of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-714(a) (Supp.1975). In the case at bar, the executors of the estate of Jacob Miller chose to prepay the inheritance tax on a portion of the remainder interest in the residuary trust almost two years after the testator’s death, but while the life estate was still subsisting. Thus, the provisions of Section 714(a), supra, are applicable.
With regard to the inclusion of administration expenses and taxes in the valuation of a future interest, Section 651 of the Act of 1961, supra, provides:
“All reasonable expenses of administration, incurred after assessment of the inheritance tax on prior interests, and all death taxes paid out of property supporting such prior interests, shall not .be included in the appraisement in determining the value of a future interest on the valuation date. This section shall not apply when the tax is paid under the provisions of sections 713(a) and 714(a).”
Although the first sentence of this provision is phrased rather awkwardly, its meaning seems clear enough: where death taxes have been paid on prior interests out of property supporting those interests (and which thereafter becomes the future interest estate payable to the remainderman), the future interest is valued, when it vests, as diminished by such taxes (and also by administration expenses incurred following the assessment of such taxes). Thus federal estate and state inheritance taxes, already paid out, are not to be added back in when valuing a future interest where the tax on that interest is paid at the time the interest vests in possession and *209enjoyment.2 This instruction of the first sentence of the section is then immediately countermanded by the second sentence with respect to taxes paid under Sections 713(a) and 714(a). That is, where an election is made to prepay the tax on a future interest — whether as of the date of death under Section 713(a) or as of the date of election at any time after nine months from the date of death under Section 714(a) — the amounts of such taxes paid on prior interests are to be included in the appraisement of the future interest.
This view is in accord with that expressed by a leading text on Pennsylvania inheritance taxation:
“§ 651 conforms with the prior practice to the extent that it does not require the inclusion in the appraisement of a future interest (at the date it comes into possession and enjoyment) of death taxes and administration expenses theretofore paid out of the corpus thereof. Thus, death taxes . . . are in effect made deductible in the limited circumstance of tax on future interests which is not prepaid.
“The question then arises as to the rule to be applied when future interest tax is prepaid under . . . §§ 713 or 714. ... § 651 expressly states that its provisions are inapplicable in such situations, and the conclusion therefore seems inescapable that the appraisement of a future interest upon the occasion of an election to prepay tax thereon is to include the addition back of death taxes and administration expenses theretofore paid out of the property supporting such future interest.” R. Grossman & M. Smith, Revised *210Pennsylvania Inheritance and Estate Tax § 651-2 at 50 (1971).3
The Court’s opinion effectively ignores the legislative direction in the second sentence of Section 651. Instead, it relies upon the contrary result reached in Pickering Estate, 410 Pa. 638, 190 A.2d 132 (1963), a case decided under the now repealed provisions of the Inheritance and Estate Tax Act of 1919, Act of June 20, 1919, P.L. 521, as amended [hereinafter the Act of 1919].4 Under Section 2 of the Act of 1919, all property, including future interests, was taxed at its “clear value”, but federal estate and state death taxes were expressly made nondeductible. Nevertheless, in Pickering Estate, swpra, this Court found that such taxes were not includible in the valuation of a future interest when the tax thereon was prepaid. Under Section 3 of the Act of 1919 the value of a future interest was its value at the time of the election to prepay the tax; the Court reasoned that it was decid*211ing a question of valuation, not one of deduction, and concluded that, after the payment of death taxes, the amount so paid is no longer part of the estate and therefore has no bearing on the valuation of future interests. Id. at 644-45, 190 A.2d at 134-35. In conclusory dictum, however, the Pickering opinion then indicated that the result would be the same under Section 714(a) of the Act of 1961, then newly enacted. Id. at 650, 190 A.2d at 137. It is this dictum which the Court now makes decisional;5 I cannot agree.
Like the Act of 1919, the Act of 1961 expressly provides that federal estate and state death taxes are not deductible for inheritance tax purposes. Section 622 of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-622.6 The Act of 1961 goes significantly further than its predecessor, however, in that Section 651, a wholly new provision, was added.7 The purpose which may most reasonably be attributed to the enactment of this section is to make express provision for the special problems involved in the valuation of future interests after taxes and expenses have been paid *212from the supporting estate relative to the preceding interest. Furthermore, in my view the reference to Section 714(a) — as well as Section 713(a) — in the last sentence of Section 651 was designed to change the then-existing law as reaffirmed in Pickering Estate,8 to assure that an election to prepay the tax on a future interest at some time after nine months following the date of death would not result in a deduction for death taxes on the prior interest, whether or not such prior interest taxes had been paid at the time of election. There is no compulsion to prepay the remainder tax; it is an option available to the taxpayer which he may take or leave,9 but there is no indication that the legislature intended that by exercising the option more than nine months after death, the taxpayer would obtain deductions that would not be enjoyed were the prepayment made as of the time of death.
X would remand for further proceedings consistent with Section 651 as interpreted above.

. As far as I am aware, the only case, other than the case at bar, in which this issue has been decided is Penn Trust, 25 Fiduciary Rep. 299 (C. P. Venango Co., 1975). In Penn Trust, the court reached the same conclusion as did the court below in the instant case and as does this Court today.

. In Baylis Estate, 36 D. & C.2d 590 (O. C. Phila. Co., 1965) it was held that the value of the remainder interest being appraised following the death of the life tenant should be diminished by the amount of the Federal Estate Tax on the life estate, although that tax had not been paid at the time of the death of the life tenant. Thus the words “paid out” in the first sentence of § 651 were read to mean “paid out or payable out.” This seems a reasonable construction.

. The same interpretation has been twice stated by the editors of the Fiduciary Review. In the July, 1961, issue it is said:
“Section 651 [of the 1961 Inheritance Tax Act] codified the holding of Oberdorfer Estate, 10 Fiduc.Rep. 358, by providing that administration expenses, incurred after payment of tax on prior interests, and State and Federal death taxes paid out of property supporting such prior interests are deductible in valuing a future interest when it comes into possession and enjoyment, but not in valuing the future interest for purposes of pre-payment of tax.” (Emphasis added).
In the May, 1963, issue, at p. 2, it is said of the Act of 1961:
Federal Estate tax and Pennsylvania inheritance tax remain non-deductible . . . and in valuing a future interest at the time it comes into possession such taxes (and administration expenses paid from the principal prior to that time) are not ‘added back’. . . . However, if future interest tax is prepaid, the rule of Section 651 seems not to apply because it specifically says that ‘This section shall not apply when the tax is paid under the provisions of Sections 713(a) and 714(a).’ ” (Emphasis added).

. Subject to certain exceptions which are not here relevant, the Act of 1919 was repealed by the Act of 1961. See Section 1201(4) of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-1201(4). The Act of 1961 is applicable to the estates of decedents dying on and after January 1, 1962. Section 103 of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-103.

. The Court today concludes that “the exclusion of Section 714(a), as amended, from the application of Section 651 acts to prohibit the deduction of death taxes from the valuation of the future interest where the election to prepay is filed after nine months from a decedent’s death but before death taxes may have been paid from the estate’s assets.” Opinion of the Court, ante at 583. Under this view, whether federal estate and state death taxes are included in the valuation of a future interest is entirely dependent upon whether the taxes are paid before or after valuation occurs. Although this construction is in accord with the law under the Act of 1919, R. Grossman & M. Smith, Revised Pennsylvania Inheritance and Estate Tax § 651-1 (1971), it leads to an arbitrary result and is therefore to be avoided. See § 1922(1) of the Statutory Construction Act, 1 Pa.C.S. § 1922(1).

. See Section 601 of the Act of 1961, 72 P.S. § 2485-601, which provides in part that “[t]he only deductions from the value of the property transferred shall be those set forth in this Article.” See also Lazar Estate, 437 Pa. 171, 260 A.2d 734 (1970).

. The Opinion of the Court, ante at 582, refers to the failure of the legislature in 1951 to pass House Bill H-1361, which would have amended Section 3 of the Act of 1919, supra, to adopt the position advanced by the Commonwealth. I am unable to see the relevance of legislative non-action in 1951 to a determination of the intent of the legislature in enacting Section 651 in 1961.

. Although Pickering Estate was decided after enactment of the Act of 1961, the Court relied upon the practice of the Department of Revenue between 1919 and 1954 and upon prior decisions by the courts of Pennsylvania. See Oberdorfer Estate, 20 D. & C.2d 719 (O. C. Philadelphia Co., 1960), on which the opinion of Chief Justice Bell relied in Pickering. 410 Pa. at 645 and 650, 190 A.2d at 135 and 137.
The Opinion of the Court, ante at 582, cites the Joint State Government Commission comment to Section 714(a), supra, for the proposition that the legislature did not intend by enacting the Act of 1961 to change the law stated in Pickering Estate and Oberdorfer Estate. This comment merely states, however, that “[t]his subsection ... is in conformity with existing law insofar as it permits prepayment of tax on future interest, at the value of such interest determined as of the date election is made to prepay the tax . . . .” Nowhere is it suggested by the Commissioners that the legislature intended to preserve prior law with regard to the method by which a future interest is to be valued when an election to prepay the tax has been filed. Had that been the intention, there would have been no need whatever for the addition of Section 651 in the 1961 inheritance tax act.

. A variety of factors may influence a decision to prepay the tax at a time which is more than nine months after the date of death but before the remainder falls in. Among these would be the taxpayer’s analysis of the current market situation relative to the items composing the corpus of the supporting estate, and his estimate of the likely behavior of the market during the expected duration of the prior interest.