TAXATION - DEDUCTION OF CAPITAL LOSSES

Authors

Abstract

Executors were directed to sell the testator's residuary estate. Out of one-fifth of the proceeds a trust fund of $500,000 was to be set up, and the balance given to plaintiff absolutely. The testator in his will then stated that a large part of his residuary estate would consist of realty "which should not be sold excepting under favorable conditions," and directed his executors to hold and manage it until it could be advantageously sold. After some years the executors sold a piece of land at a loss. Plaintiff was entitled to one-fifth of the proceeds, and so he deducted one-fifth of the loss from his income tax return in the year of sale on the theory that the property had been given to him absolutely by the testator and that the executors had a mere power of sale. Held, that because of the degree of control conferred upon them, legal title was in the executors, and therefore the loss was not deductible by the beneficiaries. Anderson v. Wilson, 289 U. S. 20, 53 Sup. Ct. 417 (1933).

Recommended Citation

TAXATION - DEDUCTION OF CAPITAL LOSSES, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 562 (1934).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss4/21