Hugo Black

“ The Treasury regulations, which we think carry out the Act's purpose, made specific provisions for application of the tax to, and determination of the value of, 'a remainder * * * subject to an outstanding life estate.' [5]
The essence of a gift by trust is the abandonment of control over the property put in trust. The separable interests transferred are not gifts to the extent that power remains to revoke the trust or recapture the property represented by any of them, Burnet v. ”

“ In the Sanford case the grantor could, by modification of the trust, extinguish the donee's interest at any instant he chose. In cases such as this, where the grantor has neither the form nor substance of control and never will have unless he outlives his wife, we must conclude that he has lost all 'economic control' and that the gift is complete except for the value of his reversionary interest. ”

“ For many years Congress has sought vigorously to close tax loopholes against ingenious trust instruments. [3] Even though these concepts of property and value may be slippery and elusive they can not escape taxation so long as they are used in the world of business. The language of the gift tax statute, 'property * * * real or personal, tangible or intangible', is broad enough to include property, however conceptual or contingent. ”

“ Under the statute the gift tax amounts in some instances to a security, a form of down-payment on the estate tax which secures the eventual payment of the latter; it is in no sense double taxation as the taxpayer suggests. ”

“ Cf. Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Marshall, 2 Cir., 125 F.2d 943, 945, 141 A.L.R. 445.↑ The conclusion reached here is in accord with that of the several Circuit Courts of Appeal which have considered the problem: Commissioner v. ”