- 7 - (1947); Ellis v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1973-152. However, in cases where the policy is pure term life insurance, we have held that the benefits conferred on the payee spouse through the premium payments were too unascertainable to be taxable to the payee spouse.2 See Wright v. Commissioner, supra; Brodersen v. Commissioner, supra. In Wright v. Commissioner, supra at 385, the husband was required pursuant to the divorce decree to maintain a 10-year renewable term life insurance policy on his own life naming his wife the owner and beneficiary of the policy. Under the decree, the husband was to maintain the policy until his wife remarried, reached age 65, or died. See id. at 383-384. In that case, we held that in determining whether the wife constructively received the premiums paid by her ex-husband “it is necessary to examine what obligations are due her under the policy, as well as whether she is the owner or assignee and irrevocable beneficiary of the policy.” Id. at 397. We held that the wife under the term life insurance policy had such limited rights that she could not be said to have constructively received an economic benefit from the premium payments. See id. at 398. This Court focused on the contingent nature of the 2 We note that under post-DEFRA section 71 premium payments on both whole and term life insurance policies are includable in the payee spouse’s gross income. See sec. 1.71-1T(b), A-6, Temporary Income Tax Regs., 49 Fed. Reg. 34455 (Aug. 31, 1984).Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next
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