- 20 - payments remaining in decedent’s estate at death should receive a marketability discount. In Shackleford v. United States, 262 F.3d 1028 (9th Cir. 2001), the taxpayer had won a State lottery and died prior to receiving all the payments. The taxpayer was precluded by State law from assigning those payments. The United States argued that the annuity rules of section 2039 should apply, and therefore the stream of payments should be valued under the tables set forth in section 7520. The estate argued that because of the lack of marketability of the payments, a lack of marketability discount should be allowed. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court ruling and explained: “We have long recognized that restrictions on alienability reduce value.” Shackleford v. United States, supra at 1032 (citing Bayley v. Commissioner, 624 F.2d 884, 885 (9th Cir. 1980); Trust Servs. of Am., Inc. v. United States, 885 F.2d 561, 569 (9th Cir. 1989)), affg. 69 T.C. 234 (1977). The Court of Appeals compared the situation with stock subject to resale restrictions that prevented it from being sold freely in a public market. Shackleford v. United States, supra at 1032. The estate also cites a similar lottery case, Estate of Gribauskas v. Commissioner, 342 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2003), revg. 116 T.C. 142 (2001), where this Court held on facts similar to Shackleford that the taxpayer could not take the marketability discount. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversedPage: Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011