Field's Estate v. Commissioner

FRANK, Circuit Judge.

In Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U.S. 106, 111, 60 S.Ct. 444, 84 L.Ed. 604, 125 A.L.R. 1368, the Court said that “the measure of the tax is the value of the transferred property at the time when death brings it into enjoyment” Precisely what that means has been a matter of much comment.1 We do not agree with the Tax Court that Smith v. Shaughnessy, 318 U.S. 176, 63 S.Ct. 545, 87 L.Ed. 690, which dealt with a gift tax, aids decision here. Whatever we might now hold if this were for us a novel question, we need not consider, for the matter is governed in this circuit by our…