Evans v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

The single issue raised on this appeal is whether the terms and scheme of a trust indenture are such as to enable a valuation of a beneficiary’s present interest in the trusted property which will support a claim of the settlor to a gift tax exemption under the familiar statutory exclusion of the first $3,000 given to any person during a taxable year. The Tax Court rejected the claimed exemption.

In 1945, the taxpayer by a single trust instrument set up separate and identical trusts for her six children. During that year she paid into the trust fund for each child the sum…