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valuation of decedent's Class B stock for Federal estate tax
purposes must take into account any changes brought about by
decedent's death.
Respondent also argues that the unified gift and estate
transfer tax system does not require that the pre-death
securities law restrictions be taken into account because the
legislative history does not support petitioner's position, that
the willing-buyer willing-seller standard provides an objective
test for determining value, and that the same standard is used to
determine the amount of a gift and the amount of property
includable in the gross estate.
We believe the correct result in this case is pointed to by
the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the
Court to which an appeal in this case would normally be directed)
in Ahmanson Foundation v. United States, 674 F.2d 761 (9th Cir.
1981). For our present purposes, the essential facts in that
case were as follows: Ahmanson, at his death, owned 15 percent
of a savings and loan association of which 81 percent was owned
by HFA, a holding company. Decedent controlled, through a
revocable trust, 600 out of 1,000 shares of voting common stock
of HFA, and an income interest in 11,000 out of 106,711 shares of
nonvoting common stock of HFA. Also held in the revocable trust
were all of the shares of Ahmanco Inc., a corporate shell with no
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