Cite as: 511 U. S. 224 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
visions are not to be taken as subject to state control or limitation unless the language or necessary implication of the section involved makes its application dependent on state law."
Cases like Jewett and this one illustrate as well as any why it is that state property transfer rules do not translate into federal taxation rules. Under state property rules, an effective disclaimer of a testamentary gift 16 is generally treated as relating back to the moment of the original transfer of the interest being disclaimed, having the effect of canceling the transfer to the disclaimant ab initio and substituting a single transfer from the original donor to the beneficiary of the disclaimer. See, e. g., Schoonover v. Osborne, 193 Iowa 474, 478, 187 N. W. 20, 22 (1922); Seifner v. Weller, 171 S. W. 2d 617, 624 (Mo. 1943); Albany Hosp. v. Hanson, 214 N. Y. 435, 445, 108 N. E. 812, 815 (1915); Burritt v. Silliman, 13 N. Y. 93, 97-98 (1855); Perkins v. Isley, 224 N. C. 793, 798, 32 S. E. 2d 588, 591 (1945); see also 3 American Law of Property § 14.15 (A. Casner ed. 1952). Although a state-law right to disclaim with such consequences might be thought to follow from the common-law principle that a gift is a bilateral transaction, requiring not only a donor's intent to give, but also a donee's acceptance, see, e. g., Wallace v. Moore, 219 Ga. 137, 139, 132 S. E. 2d 37, 39 (1963); Gottstein v. Hedges, 210 Iowa 272, 275, 228 N. W. 93, 94 (1929); Pirie v. Le Saulnier, 161 Wis. 503, 507, 154 N. W. 993, 994 (1915); Blanchard v. Sheldon, 43 Vt. 512, 514 (1871), state-law tolerance for delay in disclaiming reflects a less theoretical concern. An impor-16 See Brown v. Routzahn, 63 F. 2d 914, 916 (CA6 1933); 3 American Law of Property § 14.15 (A. Casner ed. 1952). As to interests created by intestate succession, state laws generally refused to give effect to disclaimers; the traditional rule is that "title to the property of an intestate passes by force of the rules of law . . . and that those so entitled by law have no power to prevent the vesting of title in themselves." Harden-bergh v. Commissioner, 198 F. 2d 63, 66 (CA8), cert. denied, 344 U. S. 836 (1952) (citations omitted).
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