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C. Internal Consistency
Section 2056(b) disallows the marital deduction with respect
to certain terminable interests. Section 2056(b) had its origin
in section 361 of the Revenue Act of 1948, ch. 168, 62 Stat. 110,
117. S. Rept. 1013, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948), 1948-1 C.B. 285
(S. Rept. 1013), is the report of the Committee on Finance that
accompanied H.R. 4790, 80th Cong. 2d Sess. (1948) (which was
enacted as the Revenue Act of 1948). S. Rept. 1013 has the
following to say about the operation of the terminable interest
rule:
[The terminable interest rule] is intended to be
all-encompassing with respect to various kinds of
contingencies and conditions. Thus, it is immaterial
whether the interest passing to the surviving spouse is
considered as a vested interest subject to divestment
or as a contingent interest. * * * [The terminable
interest rule] applies whether the terms of the
instrument or the theory of their application are
conceived as creating a future interest which may fail
to ripen or vest or as creating a present interest
which may terminate. * * * [1948-1 C.B. at 336.]
The terminable interest rule has been interpreted as
follows:
Thus a terminable interest obviously may be either
a contingent interest (i.e., where vesting is subject
to a condition precedent) or a vested interest subject
to defeasance (i.e., where a vested interest may be
divested by the occurrence of a condition subsequent).
The critical factor which defeats the deduction is the
defeasibility of an interest which will cause it to
pass from the decedent to a third person. * * *
[Emphasis added.]
Robertson v. United States, 199 F. Supp. 78, 80 (N.D. Ala. 1961),
revd. 310 F.2d 199 (5th Cir. 1962). Thus, for example, a
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