Commissioner of Corporations & Taxation v. Ayer

In each case a settlor, an inhabitant of this Commonwealth, purchased securities, placed them in a revocable trust, and died without exercising the power of revocation. Thereafter the trustees sold the securities. The question presented is whether, under the Massachusetts income tax statute, the basis of determination of the excess of gains over losses is the value on the date of creation of the trust or the value on the" date of death.1 In each case the commissioner appeals from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board that the basis is the value on the date of death.

The Ayer case concerns a…