Cite as: 511 U. S. 224 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
After Mrs. Irvine's death in 1987, respondents, representing her estate, filed this action for refund of the tax and interest in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. The Government continued to maintain that the partial disclaimer brought about a transfer subject to federal gift tax because Mrs. Irvine had not made it, as the Regulation requires, "within a reasonable time after knowledge of the [earlier] transfer" that created her interest in the trust estate. The Government relied on Jewett v. Commissioner, 455 U. S. 305 (1982), in which this Court held that the "transfer" referred to in Treas. Reg. § 25.2511-1(c), 26 CFR § 25.2511-1(c) (1959) (promulgated in 1958), knowledge of which starts the clock ticking, occurs at the creation of the interest being disclaimed, not when its extent is finally ascertained or it becomes possessory. Jewett, supra, at 311-312.
Respondents tried to distinguish Jewett as having dealt with a trust established in 1939, after the creation of the gift tax by the Revenue Act of 1932 (Act), whereas the Ordway trust had been created before the Act, in 1917. Respondents also argued that the "reasonable time" limitation did not apply because the pre-Act, 1917 transfer creating the trust was not a "taxable transfer" of an interest, absent which the Regulation was inapplicable.6 On cross-motions
6 The 1958 version of the Regulation was in force throughout the period from Mrs. Irvine's disclaimer to her unsuccessful claim for a refund. The parties agree, however, that the current (1986) version of the Regulation supersedes the earlier version and governs this case. See 26 U. S. C. § 7805(b) (Secretary of the Treasury "may prescribe the extent, if any, to which any ruling or regulation, relating to the internal revenue laws, shall be applied without retroactive effect"); Automobile Club of Mich. v. Commissioner, 353 U. S. 180, 184 (1957) (Treasury Regulations may be retroactively applied unless doing so constitutes an abuse of the Secretary's discretion).
The relevant regulation is now Treas. Reg. § 25.2511-1(c)(2), 26 CFR § 25.2511-1(c)(2) (1993), which provides in relevant part:
"In the case of taxable transfers creating an interest in the person disclaiming made before January 1, 1977, where the law governing the administration of the decedent's estate gives a beneficiary, heir, or next-of-kin a right completely and unqualifiedly to refuse to accept ownership of prop-
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