## Facts

- Claire Fern Pickard died testate and placed her residuary estate in trust (Pickard Trust).
- Her stepfather, Herbert Peterson, held a vested remainder interest in the Pickard Trust but predeceased Pickard.
- Under Peterson’s will, his residuary estate passed to a separate trust (Peterson Trust).
- The Peterson Trust provided that, after the lifetimes of certain noncharitable beneficiaries, the trust corpus would pass to two qualified tax-exempt charitable organizations.
- Peterson’s vested remainder in the Pickard Trust passed (upon Pickard’s death) into the Peterson Trust under Peterson’s will.
- Pickard’s estate claimed an estate tax charitable deduction under I.R.C. § 2055 for the actuarial value of the portion of Pickard’s property expected to reach the charities through the Peterson Trust.
- The Commissioner disallowed the deduction and determined an estate tax deficiency; the estate petitioned the Tax Court.
- The parties did not dispute the charities’ qualification or the actuarial computation; the dispute concerned entitlement to the § 2055 deduction.

## Issues

1. Whether an estate may claim an I.R.C. § 2055 charitable deduction when the decedent’s will did not transfer property to or for the use of charity, and the property reaches charity only through a third party’s will and trust.
2. Whether § 2055’s requirement of a “bequest, legacy, devise, or transfer” is satisfied by an ultimate charitable destination caused by another person’s dispositive act rather than the decedent’s.

## Decision

- The Tax Court held the estate was not entitled to a charitable deduction under I.R.C. § 2055.
- The court sustained the Commissioner’s deficiency determination and entered judgment for the Commissioner.
- The court reasoned that the charitable transfer must be made by the decedent whose estate is taxed; Pickard made no charitable transfer, even though the property later would pass to charity under Peterson’s will.

## Legal Principles

- A § 2055 charitable deduction requires a “bequest, legacy, devise, or transfer” by the decedent whose estate claims the deduction.
- Property’s eventual passage to charity does not satisfy § 2055 if the charitable interest arises only from a separate, intervening transfer by another person or by operation of law.
- The statutory phrase “to or for the use of” a qualified charity presupposes that the decedent’s own dispositive act creates the charitable use; it does not convert a noncharitable transfer into a charitable transfer based on later events.

## Conclusion

The Tax Court denied the estate tax charitable deduction because the decedent’s testamentary plan did not itself make a transfer to or for the use of charity; the charitable disposition resulted solely from another person’s will and trust, which could not be attributed to the decedent for purposes of I.R.C. § 2055.


Estate of Pickard v. Commissioner, 60 T.C. 618 (1973)