James Clark McReynolds

“ The Massachusetts statute by plain words places the real burden of the tax upon the legatee or other person who receives a decedent's property. Payments required of an executor are only preliminary; ultimately they must be met by the beneficiaries.
Decisions of the Massachusetts Supreme Court show with adequate certainty that the right of succession is the real object of the charge laid because of property which passes by will or under the laws relative to intestacy. The thing burdened is the right to receive. ”

“ The District Court erred in holding: 'It is obvious that the United States had demanded and received a tax levied upon the estate of the plaintiff's testator in excess of the amount lawfully due. It is not the correct tax measured by the net estate in view of decisions of the court.'
The Revenue Act of 1916 (amended as to rates March 3, 1917, 39 Stat. 1000, 1002, and October 3, 1917, 40 Stat. 300, 324) imposed a graduated tax upon the transfer of the net estate, ascertained as directed by section 203, of every person dying thereafter. ”

“ Manifestly, the state taxes paid by the executor were not permissible deductions, unless they were such 'charges against the estate, as are allowed by the laws of the juris diction, * * * under which the estate is being administered.' Charges against an estate are only such as affect it as a whole. They do not include taxes on the rights of individual beneficiaries. ”