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Id. at 130. The trustees of the donor's estate maintained that
the relation-back doctrine should be extended to noncharitable
gifts made by check. The trustees argued that there were no
policy considerations which would justify treating charitable
donations differently than noncharitable gifts. The Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit disagreed, stating:
there remains sufficient justification compelling the
inclusion of outstanding checks issued to noncharitable
donees. The Internal Revenue Code now exempts only
those gifts made by a decedent up to $10,000 per donee,
per year. I.R.C. � 2035(b)(2) (1985). To the extent
of that exemption, application of the relation back
doctrine fosters estate tax avoidance. By issuing a
check to a noncharitable donee with the understanding
that it not be cashed until after his death, a decedent
may effectively bequest up to $10,000 per donee, thus
avoiding the estate tax consequences normally attending
such transactions. * * * [Id. at 132.]
In Estate of Metzger v. Commissioner, 100 T.C. 204 (1993),
we extended the relation-back doctrine to a situation involving
noncharitable gift checks. In that case, the checks were issued
to noncharitable donees in December 1985. The donees deposited
the checks on December 31, 1985; however, the checks did not
clear the drawee until after the New Year holiday in 1986. Id.
at 214. The question was whether the gifts occurred in the first
year or in the second. A critical difference between the facts
in Estate of Gagliardi v. Commissioner, 89 T.C. 1207 (1987), and
McCarthy v. United States, supra, and the facts in Estate of
Metzger v. Commissioner, supra, was that the donor in Estate of
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