Cite as: 511 U. S. 224 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
ready observed, supra, at 233, that "the practical effect of [a disclaimer like this one is] to reduce the expected size of [the disclaimant's] taxable estate and to confer a gratuitous benefit upon the natural objects of [her] bounty . . . ." Jewett, 455 U. S., at 310. Accordingly, as the Court said in Jewett, " '[a]n important, if not the main, purpose of the gift tax was to prevent or compensate for avoidance of death taxes by taxing the gifts of property inter vivos which, but for the gifts, would be subject in its original or converted form to the tax laid upon transfers at death.' " Ibid. (quoting Estate of Sanford v. Commissioner, 308 U. S. 39, 44 (1939)). Hence the capacious language of Internal Revenue Code §§ 2501(a)(1) and 2511(a), which encompasses all gratuitous transfers of property and property rights of significant value. See supra, at 232-233.
"[T]he passage of time is crucial to the scheme of the gift tax." Jewett, supra, at 316, n. 17 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The opportunity to disclaim, and thereby to avoid gift as well as estate taxation, should not be so long as to provide a virtually unlimited opportunity to consider estate planning consequences. While a decision to disclaim even at the earliest opportunity may be made with appreciation of potential estate tax consequences, the passage of time puts the prospective disclaimant in a correspondingly superior position to determine whether her need to enjoy the property (and incur a tax for a subsequent gift of it or an increased estate tax if she retains it) outweighs the favorable estate and gift tax consequences of a disclaimer. Although there is no bright-line rule for timeliness in the absence of a statute or regulation providing one, Mrs. Irvine's delay for at least 47 years after the clock began running, until she reached age 68, could not possibly be thought reasonable. By the date of her disclaimer, Mrs. Irvine was in a position to make a fairly precise determination of the advantage to be gained by a transfer diminishing her estate
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