Dickman v. Commissioner

The Court’s decision today rejects a longstanding principle of taxation, and creates in its stead a new and anomalous rule of law. Such action is best left to Congress.1

H-H

The Internal Revenue Service’s attempts to assess gift taxes on interest-free demand loans is a relatively new development in the field of tax law. The gift tax provisions of the Internal Revenue Code were enacted in 1932.2 For 34 years — a third of a century — the IRS enforced these provisions without any intimation that an interest-free loan would have gift tax consequences. The IRS first pursued its present position in…