United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Burnet v. Whitehouse, 283 U.S. 148 (1931)

Burnet v. Whitehouse

No. 129

Argued March 11, 1931

Decided April 13, 1931

283 U.S. 148

Syllabus

1. Where an annuity is bequeathed as a definite sum payable annually and at all events during the donee's life and charged upon the testator's whole estate, the payments received by the donee, whether taken from the income or the corpus of the estate, are not part of the donee's gross income under the Revenue Act of 1921, but, by § 213(b)(3), are excepted from gross income as property acquired by gift or bequest. Irwin v. Gavit, 268 U. S. 161, distinguished. P. 151.

2. Section 219 of the Revenue Act of 1921, which declare that the tax imposed by §§ 210, 211, shall apply to the income of estates, including income which is to be distributed to the beneficiaries periodically, applies only to income paid as such to the beneficiary. Id.

3. The plain exemption of § 213 should not be destroyed by any strained construction of general language in § 219. Id.

38 F.2d 162 affirmed.

Certiorari, 282 U. S. 818, to review a judgment affirming a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals, 7 B.T.A. 600, which overruled a demand made by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for payment of an income tax on receipts from an annuity.

Page 283 U. S. 149