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available unless a sufficient identity of interest exists so that
the taxpayers should be treated as one. See Parker v. United
States, supra at 683.
In the instant case, we find that there is sufficient
identity of interest between petitioner and the payor of the tax
that petitioner seeks to recoup. Decedent's will provides that
the estate taxes are to be paid from the residue of the estate,
and petitioner sold stock included in that residue to pay its
estate tax liability. The gain realized on the sales passed
through to the residuary legatee, March, who reported the gain
and paid the income tax due. Any adjustment through recoupment
will benefit only the residuary legatee, and any distinction of
legal entities would be purely artificial. See Stone v. White,
301 U.S. 532 (1937) (identity of interest between the trust which
paid the tax and the beneficiary who had received the income);
Estate of Vitt v. United States, 706 F.2d 871, 875 n.3 (8th Cir.
1983) (sufficient identity of interest between the separate
estates of deceased spouses, because the same parties
detrimentally affected by the overpayment of estate tax would
receive the proceeds from recoupment); Boyle v. United States,
supra at 236 (sufficient identity of interest between estate that
paid estate tax on accumulated dividend arrearages included in
corpus and all the beneficiaries of the estate who later were
paid the dividends and liable for the income tax thereon); United
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