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was owned by a trust benefiting the Roark family. Both the trust
and NCF were entitled to portions of the policy’s death benefit,
the trust entitled to by far the larger share.
In Addis v. Commissioner, 118 T.C. 528 (2002), and then
again in Weiner v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2002-153, we ruled
that the deductions in such arrangements--known as “charitable
split-dollar life insurance agreements”--foundered on section
170(f)(8).1 This section requires substantiation of a charitable
contribution with a written acknowledgment by the charity stating
whether the donor received “any goods or services in
consideration, in whole or in part,” for his donation. Sec.
170(f)(8)(B)(ii). In both Addis and Weiner, we held that letters
from a charity stating that no consideration was received were
inadequate substantiation if the charity was paying premiums for
life insurance benefiting the donor or his family. Both Addis
and Weiner have now been affirmed on appeal. Addis, 374 F.3d 881
(9th Cir. 2004); Weiner, 102 Fed. Appx. 631 (9th Cir. 2004). In
this case, we follow those rulings and again uphold the
Commissioner’s disallowance of the claimed deduction.
FINDINGS OF FACT
This case features three characters: (1) petitioner David
1 Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code of
1986, as amended.
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