Cite as: 511 U. S. 224 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
the trouble by citing Treas. Reg. § 25.2518-2(c)(3) 12 (adopted in 1986, as was the Regulation), which deals with the new regime (not applicable here) for disclaimers of interests created after December 31, 1976,13 and defines "taxable transfer" for its purposes as covering transfers on which no tax is actually imposed (e. g., because a gift is chargeable against the current lifetime exemption, 26 U. S. C. § 2503(b)). If this definition is thought to beg the question, the Government falls back to the argument that the predecessor regulation was not limited in application to interests derived from taxable transfers, and there was no intent in 1986 to narrow the scope covered by the 1958 version of the Regulation in any such way.
The second argument rests on the Regulation's provision that "the transfer" to which it applies is subject to a timely, tax-free disclaimer "whether the transfer is effected by the decedent's will or by the law of descent and distribution," but only "where the law governing the administration of the decedent's estate" gives the recipient of the transferred interest a right to refuse it.14 As against these descriptions of the transfer's testamentary character, the text says nothing indicating that a taxable transfer from anyone other than a decedent may create an interest subject to a disclaimer free of gift tax. If the text is given its strict reading, then, it has no application to the interest in question here, which came into being not from a decedent's transfer by will or from application of the law of descent and distribution, but
12 Treasury Reg. § 25.2518-2(c)(3), 26 CFR § 25.2518-2(c)(3) (1993), provides in relevant part: "With respect to inter vivos transfers, a taxable transfer occurs when there is a completed gift for Federal gift tax purposes regardless of whether a gift tax is imposed on the completed gift."
13 Under the new regime, tax-free disclaimers of interests created by post-1976 transfers may generally be made within nine months after the disclaimant has learned of the interest and reached the age of 21. See 26 U. S. C. § 2518; Treas. Reg. §§ 25.2518-1, 25.2518-2, 26 CFR §§ 25.2518-1, 25.2518-2 (1993).
14 See n. 6, supra.
237
Page: Index Previous 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007