Christine M. Hackl - Page 28




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          and circumstances must be examined to determine whether a gift is           
          of a present interest within the meaning of section 2503(b), and            
          this will be true only where all involved rights and                        
          restrictions, wherever contained, reveal a presently reachable              
          economic benefit.  Since here the primary source of such rights             
          and restrictions is the Treeco Operating Agreement, its                     
          provisions, in their cumulative entirety, must largely dictate              
          whether the units at issue conferred the requisite benefit.                 
          Accordingly, we now turn to the Operating Agreement to flesh out            
          the nature of the property rights transferred to the donees at              
          the time of their receipt of the Treeco units and whether such              
          rights rose to the level of a present interest on account of                
          either the units themselves (considered in this section) or the             
          income therefrom (considered in section IV.C., infra).                      
               Petitioners offer the following summary of the rights                  
          inuring to the donees upon their receipt of the LLC units:                  
                    Upon transfer the Donees acquired membership                      
               rights and obligations in the gifted Treeco units which                
               were identical to those which Petitioners had in the                   
               Treeco units they retained, including the rights under                 
               the Treeco Operating Agreement to have all net income                  
               or capital gains allocated, all cash distributions                     
               made, and net loss allocated (subject to an allocation                 
               of losses to A.J. Hackl for a period which was designed                
               to ensure the current deductibility of Treeco losses                   
               for federal income tax purposes) based on the number of                
               units held in relation to the total number of units,                   
               the right to have capital accounts established and                     
               maintained on behalf of each member in the manner                      
               provided by Treas. Reg. � 1.704-1(b)(2)(iv), the right                 
               to offer units for sale to Treeco, or to sell their                    
               units to third parties (subject to manager approval),                  





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