Estate of Frank Armstrong, Jr., Deceased, Frank Armstrong III, Executor - Page 17




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          other than his (or the estate’s) payment of his gift tax                    
          liabilities.10                                                              
               Fourth, the parties have stipulated that the donee children            
          paid none of decedent’s 1991 and 1992 gift tax liabilities–-a               
          fact specifically noted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the                
          Fourth Circuit in the refund litigation.  Estate of Armstrong v.            
          United States, 277 F.3d at 496 (“the donee children have paid no            
          gift taxes”).  The donee children’s mere conditional promise to             
          pay certain additional gift taxes that decedent might be                    
          determined to owe does not reduce the amount of decedent’s gift             
          taxes included in the gross estate under section 2035(c).                   
               Fifth, in any event (and unsurprisingly in light of our                
          previous observations) the estate has set forth no particular               
          facts to show that decedent or the estate received or was                   
          entitled to receive “consideration” for payment of decedent’s               
          1991 and 1992 gift taxes; the estate’s mere allegations in this             






               10 If we were to suspend disbelief and assume, for the sake            
          of argument, that decedent received valuable “consideration” in             
          exchange for his agreeing to pay his own gift tax liabilities, it           
          would logically follow that decedent’s gross estate should be               
          increased to reflect the date-of-death value of this alleged                
          consideration, thus offsetting the tax benefit that the estate              
          seeks to obtain by netting this “consideration” against the gift            
          taxes otherwise includable in the gross estate under sec.                   
          2035(c).                                                                    






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