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consideration and by which the purchaser secures immediate
possession and exercises all the rights of ownership. The
delivery of a deed may be postponed and payment of part of the
purchase price may be deferred by installment payments, but for
taxing purposes it is enough if the vendor obtains under the
contract the unqualified right to recover the consideration. See
Merrill v. Commissioner, 40 T.C. 66 (1963) (quoting Commissioner
v. Union Pac. R. Co., 86 F.2d 637, 639 (2d Cir. 1936), affg. 32
B.T.A. 383 (1935)), affd. per curiam 336 F.2d 771 (9th Cir.
1964).
It has long been recognized that property, in the legal
sense, means not the thing itself, but the rights which inhere in
it. Ownership of property is not a single indivisible concept
but a collection or bundle of rights with respect to the
property. See, e.g., Merrill v. Commissioner, supra at 74. In
this case under Texas law the full equitable title did not pass
to the Church when the contract for deed was signed in 1994.
However, as against third parties the Church received equitable
title to the property. The Church bore the risk of loss or gain
in the value of the property, had a right to possession, could
sue third parties for nuisance or trespass, could erect
improvements on the land, was responsible for all taxes on the
property, and, with consent of the vendor, could mortgage the
property. As against petitioner the Church had the equitable
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