Commonwealth, Department of Taxation v. Lewis

About two years before her death, Page L. Jennings made a gift of certain assets on which the State of Virginia assessed and collected a gift tax. These assets were included in her estate for death tax purposes because the gift was found to have been made in contemplation of death. Mrs. Jennings’s Administrators c.t.a. claimed a credit against the Virginia death tax in the amount of the gift tax previously paid, which the Department of Taxation denied. Upon the Administrators’ application the trial court held that the estate was entitled to the credit. The Commonwealth appeals.

For an…