Cite as: 528 U. S. 49 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
happens to be exempt from state levy under state law."). The absence of any recognition of disclaimers in §§ 6321, 6322, 6331(a), and 6334(a) and (c), the relevant tax collection provisions, contrasts with § 2518(a) of the Code, which renders qualifying state-law disclaimers "with respect to any interest in property" effective for federal wealth-transfer tax purposes and for those purposes only.3
Drye nevertheless refers to cases indicating that state law is the proper guide to the critical determination whether his interest in his mother's estate constituted "property" or "rights to property" under § 6321. His position draws support from two recent appellate opinions: Leggett v. United States, 120 F. 3d 592, 597 (CA5 1997) ("Section 6321 adopts the state's definition of property interest."); and Mapes v. United States, 15 F. 3d 138, 140 (CA9 1994) ("For the answer to th[e] question [whether taxpayer had the requisite interest in property], we must look to state law, not federal law."). Although our decisions in point have not been phrased so meticulously as to preclude Drye's argument,4 we are satisfied that the Code and interpretive case law place under federal, not state, control the ultimate issue whether a taxpayer has a beneficial interest in any property subject to levy for unpaid federal taxes.
3 See Pennell, Recent Wealth Transfer Tax Developments, in Sophisticated Estate Planning Techniques 69, 117-118 (ALI-ABA Continuing Legal Ed. 1997) ("The fact that a qualified disclaimer by an estate beneficiary is deemed to relate back to the decedent's death for state property law or federal gift tax purposes is not sufficient to preclude a federal tax lien for the disclaimant's delinquent taxes from attaching to the disclaimed property as of the moment of the decedent's death. . . . [T]he qualified disclaimer provision in § 2518 only applies for purposes of Subtitle B and the lien provisions are in Subtitle F.").
4 See, e. g., United States v. National Bank of Commerce, 472 U. S. 713, 722 (1985) ("[T]he federal statute 'creates no property rights but merely attaches consequences, federally defined, to rights created under state law.' ") (quoting United States v. Bess, 357 U. S. 51, 55 (1958)).
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