Merrill Trust Co. v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 12 February 1963 |
| Citation | 159 Me. 45,188 A.2d 75 |
| Parties | MERRILL TRUST COMPANY et al. v. Ernest H. JOHNSON, State Tax Assessor. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
John E. Hess, Bangor, for plaintiffs.
Ralph W. Farris, Sr., Augusta, for defendant.
Before WILLIAMSON, C. J., and WEBBER, TAPLEY, SULLIVAN, SIDDALL and MARDEN, JJ.
On report from the Probate Court for Penobscot County upon petition in Equity for the abatement of an inheritance tax.
Henry J. Hart, late of Bangor, Maine died testate on January 12, 1959. During his lifetime he had made gifts in excess of $100,000.00 to Brown University, an educational institution incorporated under the laws of and operating in the State of Rhode Island. It is conceded that these gifts may be considered as gifts effective at death. Additionally Mr. Hart by his will bequeathed 5% of his residuary estate to Brown University. This fractional part of his residuary estate is by stipulation slightly under $6,000.00, reflecting a residuary estate of in excess of $100,000.00. The State of Maine Tax Assessor has assessed an inheritance tax upon the property passing both by way of the gifts inter vivos and by the residuary bequest to Brown University. It is also conceded that the gifts in both categories stand upon the same footing as relates to the challenged tax.
The tax so assessed was paid under protest and the estate of Mr. Hart petitions for an abatement, contending that such gifts are exempt from inheritance taxation under the provisions of our Chapter 155, Section 2, subsection II, R.S. the pertinent parts of which statute are for convenience abstracted as follows:
'All property which shall pass to or for the use of * * * institutions now or hereafter exempted by law from taxation, or to a public corporation, or to any * * * institution * * * engaged in or devoted to any * * * educational, * * * or other like work, pecuniary profit not being its object or purpose, or to any * * * institution * * * in trust for or to be devoted to any * * * educational * * * purpose, * * * shall be exempted; * * *
'(A) (this subdivision identity added) provided further, that if such * * *institution * * * be organized or existing under the laws of a * * * state of the United States, other than this state, * * * all property transferred to said * * * institution * * * shall be exempted, if at the date of decedent's death the said state * * * under the laws of which said * * * institution * * * was organized or existing did not impose a legacy or succession tax or a death tax of any character, in respect of property passing to or for the use of such * * * institution * * * organized or existing under the laws of this state, or
'(B) (this subdivision identity added) if at the date of decedent's death the laws of the state * * * under which said * * * institution * * * was organized or existing, contained a reciprocal provision under which such passing of property to said * * * institution * * * organized or existing under the laws of another state * * * shall be exempt from legacy or succession or death taxes of every character, providing such other state * * * allowed a similar exemption to such a * * * institution * * * organized or existing under the laws of another state * * *.'
The report further concedes that Brown University is an institution of the type which qualifies for exempt treatment under our statute, abstracted above, provided that the laws of Rhode Island satisfy the conditions therein imposed.
We paraphrase our abstracted statute for application to this case. Property passing to Brown University from a Maine decedent shall be exempted from inheritance taxation by Maine if at the date of decedents death, the State of Rhode Island did not impose a legacy or succession tax or a death tax of any character in respect of property passing from a Rhode Island decedent to a similarly otherwise qualified college in Maine, or if at the date of decedents death the laws of Rhode Island contained a reciprocal provision under which such passing of property from a Rhode Island decedent to an otherwise qualified college in Maine, should be exempt from legacy or succession or death taxes of every character, provided the laws of Maine allowed a similar exemption to Brown University.
The report agrees that the Hart benefits to Brown University are exempt from taxation if those gifts qualify for exemption under the so-called specific charitable exemption under the provisions of our statute, subdivision (A) as we have identified it above, or if the laws of the State of Rhode Island satisfy the conditions imposed by our statute, subdivision (B) as we have identified it above, under what may be termed a 'reciprocal' exemption.
Rhode Island law (on January 12, 1959) declared that:
Title 44, Chapter 22, Section 1, Rhode Island General Laws.
The report stipulates that for purposes of computing the size or value of such net estate, gifts to charities, wherever located, are included.
The defendant urges that this Rhode Island law nullifies the exemptions offered by the Maine statute and that the reference gifts to Brown University are subject to Maine inheritance tax.
Expressed in terms of the Maine and Rhode Island statutes, is the tax upon the 'right to transfer' imposed by Section 1 of Chapter 22, Title 44, Rhode Island General Laws, 'a legacy or succession tax or a death tax of any character, in respect of property passing to or for the use of' a Maine institution, otherwise qualified as is Brown University in Rhode Island, from a Rhode Island decedent (relative the specific charitable exemption); or in spite of the Rhode Island tax on the right to transfer, above referred to, does Rhode Island exempt 'from legacy or succession or...
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National Newark and Essex Bank v. Hart
...general estate of a decedent, but on the right or privilege of receiving or taking it from the decedent's estate. Merrill Trust Co. v. Johnson, 159 Me. 45, 118 A.2d 75 (1963). An estate tax, unlike an inheritance tax, is, therefore, by its nature not payable by legatees or out of legacies a......
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Angevine v. Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation
...held fatal to reciprocal exemptions in the Poucher case, 127 Conn. 441, 445--447, 17 A.2d 767, and in Merrill Trust Co. v. Johnson, State Tax Assessor, 159 Me., 45, 49--51, 188 A.2d 75.4 Some suggestion was made at the arguments that Carroll v. Commissioner of Corps. & Taxn., 343 Mass. 409,......
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Wilson's Estate, In re
...An identical legal issue was raised and determined in accordance with the theory here advanced by the state in Merrill Trust Company v. Johnson (1963) 159 Me. 45, 188 A.2d 75. In that case, the decedent, a resident of Maine, by transfers taking effect at death, gave over $100,000 plus 5 per......