58
Opinion of the Court
III
As restated in National Bank of Commerce: "The question whether a state-law right constitutes 'property' or 'rights to property' is a matter of federal law." 472 U. S., at 727. We look initially to state law to determine what rights the taxpayer has in the property the Government seeks to reach, then to federal law to determine whether the taxpayer's state-delineated rights qualify as "property" or "rights to property" within the compass of the federal tax lien legislation. Cf. Morgan v. Commissioner, 309 U. S. 78, 80 (1940) ("State law creates legal interests and rights. The federal revenue acts designate what interests or rights, so created, shall be taxed.").
In line with this division of competence, we held that a taxpayer's right under state law to withdraw the whole of the proceeds from a joint bank account constitutes "property" or the "righ[t] to property" subject to levy for unpaid federal taxes, although state law would not allow ordinary creditors similarly to deplete the account. National Bank of Commerce, 472 U. S., at 723-727. And we earlier held that a taxpayer's right under a life insurance policy to compel his insurer to pay him the cash surrender value qualifies as "property" or a "righ[t] to property" subject to attachment for unpaid federal taxes, although state law shielded the cash surrender value from creditors' liens. Bess, 357 U. S., at 56- 57.5 By contrast, we also concluded, again as a matter of
5 Accord, Bank One Ohio Trust Co. v. United States, 80 F. 3d 173, 176 (CA6 1996) ("Federal law did not create [the taxpayer's] equitable income interest [in a spendthrift trust], but federal law must be applied in determining whether the interest constitutes 'property' for purposes of § 6321."); 21 West Lancaster Corp. v. Main Line Restaurant, Inc., 790 F. 2d 354, 357-358 (CA3 1986) (although a liquor license did not constitute "property" and could not be reached by creditors under state law, it was nevertheless "property" subject to federal tax lien); W. Plumb, Federal Tax Liens 27 (3d ed. 1972) ("[I]t is not material that the economic benefit to which the [taxpayer's local law property] right pertains is not characterized as 'property' by local law.").
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