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extent of the portion of the contract price deposited in escrow,
because this amount constituted a trust fund for the benefit of
the purchaser. Petitioners argue that the Dealership acted as a
mere conduit in collecting these funds and transferring them to
the Escrow Trustees, that the purchasers owned the funds held in
the PLRF, and that the Dealership first acquired property rights
in the reserve funds when the funds were disbursed to it by the
Trustees. Petitioners find support for this theory chiefly in
Angelus Funeral Home v. Commissioner, 47 T.C. 391 (1967), affd.
on other grounds 407 F.2d 210 (9th Cir. 1969), and Miele v.
Commissioner, 72 T.C. 284 (1979). Petitioners contend that "It
would be impossible to find for Respondent on this issue without
expressly overruling this Court's previous opinion in Angelus
Funeral Home," and "The situation presented in Miele is virtually
indistinguishable from that presented here."
In Angelus Funeral Home the taxpayer was an accrual basis
funeral home that collected payments from its customers under
"pre-need funeral plan agreements” obligating it to perform, or
have performed, certain funeral services for the customer upon
his death. The agreements provided that the customer's payment
be segregated in a special account, be held "in irrevocable trust
for the uses and purposes herein set forth", and be fully
expended for such purposes. The funeral home reported the
amounts so collected as income for the year in which the funeral
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