Esther C. Dickman, Estate of Paul B. Dickman, Deceased, G. Wendell Smith, Personal Representative v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Taxpayers have given away no property, no interests and no rights but surely they have made a gift. Judge Hill has labored hard to find some “legal support” for this conclusion. When one lets another use large sums of money for no charge, who would doubt that there has been conferred a valuable gift? The fact that the receipt given for the money is a demand note makes no difference.

Some would label the result in the Tax Court “poetic justice.” The Commissioner is struggling against the web that government lawyers have been weaving for years. Tax laws are different; literal application is…