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transfers of stock by a corporation's two shareholders to three
employees were not gifts because the transfers were made in the
ordinary course of business and were made for adequate and full
consideration. The employees had no special, personal
relationship with the two shareholders. In contrast, decedent
and petitioner had a close personal relationship. In Hull, we
held that the taxpayer's transfer of an interest in mineral
rights to a family-owned corporation in exchange for an annuity
payment of $15,000 per year for life was made in the ordinary
course of business, despite the fact that the beneficiaries of
the transaction were family members. Hull differs from this case
because the issue there was not whether the taxpayer had donative
intent when she transferred property for less than its fair
market value; indeed, the Commissioner stipulated that the
taxpayer believed that she had made a bona fide sale. In
contrast, whether decedent had donative intent in making the 1980
and 1983 transfers is in dispute here.
3. Petitioners' Partnership Theory
Petitioners argue that petitioner and decedent formed a
partnership and that decedent's transfers of property to him were
subject to that partnership. Petitioners point out that a
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