Estate of Allen

Opinion

DEARMAN, J. *

In this case, following the death of a retired airline employee’s spouse, the Controller sought to impose an inheritance tax on one-half of the pension that the surviving employee spouse was receiving, despite the fact that receipt of the pension preceded and was unaffected by the decedent’s passing. We concur in the superior court’s conclusion that such a tax would be improper by virtue of the fact that the community property interest of the nonemployee spouse did not pass to her husband at her death but simply terminated at that time. In reaching this conclusion we…