Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n v. United States

This is a suit to recover taxes paid in the Estate of Thomas McDonough, on the ground that the deduction allowed by the Commissioner for property previously taxed was too small. The property which is the subject of the dispute here was owned in joint tenancy by Thomas McDonough and his brother, Peter McDonough. When Peter McDonough died on July 8, 1947, his one-half interest in the joint tenancy property vested in Thomas by operation of law. Thomas McDonough died on September 13, 1948, before the administration was completed in the Estate of Peter Mc-Donough, and the estate taxes in Peter’s estate were paid out of assets in Thomas’ estate.

The original return filed by the Estate of Thomas McDonough showed that the total gross value of this one-half *924 interest that passed from Peter to Thomas was some $585,000, and that about $141,000 of the estate taxes in Peter’s estate were attributable to this property. In the original return, this property was both included in the gross estate and deducted as property previously taxed at the value of about $444,000. The Commissioner redetermined the tax and allowed a deduction of only $373,894.78, which is the value of all of Peter’s gross…