Estate of Crowell

Kenneth Cory, as Controller of the State of California, appeals from an adverse judgment sustaining objections filed by the executor of the estate of Belle Crowell to the report of the inheritance tax referee filed in this matter on March 19, 1974.

The referee included in his report as property of the estate of Belle Crowell subject to taxation under the inheritance tax law the sum of $651,617, which sum represented the assets of an “Irrevocable Trust” executed by the decedent on September 24, 1963, approximately five years before her death.

The only question presented on this appeal is whether the value of the property transferred under the trust instrument in 1963 is property subject to inheritance tax pursuant to section 13643 of the Revenue and Taxation Code. The section provides as follows: “A transfer conforming to Section 13641 [inter vivos and lacking adequate consideration] and made with the intention that it take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after the death of the transferor is a transfer subject to this part.”

In the instant case Belle Crowell transferred stock in three different corporations to be divided into five equal portions and to be held…