Helvering v. Wood, 309 U.S. 344 (1940)

Helvering v. Wood


No. 384


Argued February 5, 1940
Decided February 26, 1940
309 U.S. 344

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. Section 166 of the Revenue Act of 1934, providing that the income from a trust shall be taxable to the grantor where "at any time the power to revert in the grantor title to any part of the corpus of the trust is vested" in him is inapplicable in the absence of such power, though the term of the trust be short and the corpus will soon revert to the grantor. A mere reversion is not a power to revest within the meaning of § 166. P. 347.

2. Having invoked before the Board of Tax Appeals and the court below the comparatively narrow provisions of § 166 of the Revenue Act of 1934 to sustain the tax in question, and having expressly waived reliance on any other section, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue my not resort here for the first time to the broader provisions of § 22(a). P. 348.

104 F.2d 1013 affirmed.

Certiorari, 308 U.S. 543, to review the affirmance of a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals (37 B.T.A. 1065) which reversed a determination of a deficiency in income tax.