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at the time of her death. Estate of Gagliardi v. Commissioner,
89 T.C. 1207, 1210 (1987). Section 20.2031-5, Estate Tax Regs.,
provides that "The amount of cash belonging to the decedent at
the date of his death, whether in his possession or in the
possession of another, or deposited with a bank, is included in
the decedent's gross estate." If the checks in question
constitute completed gifts during decedent's lifetime, the funds
represented by those checks would not be includable in decedent's
gross estate.3
A gift is not consummated until put beyond the donor's
recall. Burnet v. Guggenheim, 288 U.S. 280, 286 (1933). Section
25.2511-2(b), Gift Tax Regs., provides in relevant part:
(b) As to any property, or part thereof or
interest therein, of which the donor has so parted with
dominion and control as to leave in him no power to
change its disposition, whether for his own benefit or
for the benefit of another, the gift is complete. But
if upon a transfer of property (whether in trust or
otherwise) the donor reserves any power over its
disposition, the gift may be wholly incomplete, or may
be partially complete and partially incomplete,
depending upon all the facts in the particular case.
Accordingly, in every case of a transfer of property
subject to a reserved power, the terms of the power
must be examined and its scope determined. * * *
3Although sec. 2501 imposes a tax on the transfer of
property by gift, sec. 2503(b) provides that the first $10,000 of
gifts made to any person during a year is excluded in computing
the total amount of gifts made during that year. Estate of
Cristofani v. Commissioner, 97 T.C. 74, 78 (1991). Consequently,
a gift of $10,000 or less completed prior to decedent's death is
neither included in her gross estate nor taxed as a gift.
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