gift
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 363 U.S. 278 - Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Duberstein D Stanton · 1960Most cited · 5,417 citing opinions
A gift in the statutory sense, on the other hand, proceeds from a 'detached and disinterested generosity' ... 'out of affection, respect, admiration, charity or like impulses.' And in this regard, the most critical consideration ... is the transferor's 'intention.' ... if the payment proceeds primarily from 'the constraining force of any moral or legal duty,' or from 'the incentive of anticipated benefit' of an economic nature ... it is not a gift.
How the Supreme Court has restated “gift”
Each Supreme Court definition of “gift,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “gift”
Court decisions citing the 6 opinions that defined “gift” — 8,172 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 7 definitions, chronological · 1937–1960
- ORIGINAL
A gift is none the less a gift because inspired by gratitude for the past faithful service of the recipient.
gratitude rule
The statute definitely distinguishes between compensation on the one hand and gifts on the other hand; the former being taxable and the latter free from taxation. The two terms are, and were meant to be, mutually exclusive; and a bestowal of money cannot, under the statute, be both a gift and a payment of compensation. A claim that it is a gift presents the sole and simple question whether its designation as such is genuine or fictitious; that is to say, whether, though called a gift, it is in reality compensation.
income tax
in common understanding and in the common use of language a gift is made to him upon whom the donor bestows the benefit of his donation
in trust
The statute 'is aimed at transfers of the title that have the quality of a gift'.
quality of a gift
Congress intended to use the term 'gifts' in its broadest and most comprehensive sense. Congress chose not to require an ascertainment of what too often is an elusive state of mind. For purposes of the gift tax it not only dispensed with the test of 'donative intent'. It formulated a much more workable external test, that where 'property is transferred for less than an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth,' the excess in such money value 'shall, for the purpose of the tax imposed by this title, be deemed a gift.
federal gift tax
the kind of detached and disinterested generosity which might evidence a 'gift' in the statutory sense