(a) Paragraph (5) of section 1312 applies to distributions by a trust or an estate to the beneficiaries, heirs, or legatees. If the determination relates to the amount of the deduction allowed by sections 651 and 661 or the inclusion in taxable income of the beneficiary required by sections 652 and 662 (including amounts falling within subpart D, subchapter J, chapter 1 of the Code, relating to treatment of excess distributions by trusts), or if the determination relates to the additional deduction (or inclusion) specified in section 162 (b) and (c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 (or the corresponding provisions of a prior revenue act), with respect to amounts paid, credited, or required to be distributed to the beneficiaries, heirs, and legatees, and such determination requires:
(1) The allowance to the estate or trust of the deduction when such amounts have been erroneously omitted or excluded from the income of the beneficiaries, heirs, or legatees; or
(2) The inclusion of such amounts in the income of the beneficiaries, heirs, or legatees when the deduction has been erroneously disallowed to or omitted by the estate or trust; or
(3) The disallowance to an estate or trust of the deduction when such amounts have been erroneously included in the income of the beneficiaries, heirs, or legatees; or
(4) The exclusion of such amounts from the income of the beneficiaries, heirs, or legatees when the deduction has been erroneously allowed to the estate or trust.
(b) The application of paragraph (a)(1) of this section may be illustrated by the following example:
Example: For the taxable year 1954, a trustee, directed by the trust instrument to accumulate the trust income, made no distribution to the beneficiary and returned the entire income as taxable to the trust. Accordingly the beneficiary did not include the trust income in his return for the year 1954. In 1957, a State court holds invalid the clause directing accumulation and determines that the income is required to be currently distributed. It also rules that certain extraordinary dividends which the trustee in good faith allocated to corpus in 1954 were properly allocable to income. In 1958, the trustee, relying upon the court decision, files a claim for refund of the tax paid on behalf of the trust for the year 1954 and thereafter files a suit in the District Court. The claim is sustained by the court (except as to the tax on the extraordinary dividends) in 1959 after the expiration of the period of limitations upon deficiency assessments against the beneficiary for the year 1954. An adjustment is authorized with respect to the beneficiary's tax for the year 1954. The treatment of the distribution to the beneficiary of the extraordinary dividends shall be determined under subpart D of subchapter J.
(c) The application of paragraph (a)(2) of this section may be illustrated by the following example:
Example: Assume the same facts as in the example in paragraph (b) of this section, except that, instead of the trustee's filing a refund claim, the Commissioner, relying upon the decision of the State court, asserts a deficiency against the beneficiary for 1954. The deficiency is sustained by final decision of the Tax Court of the United States in 1959, after the expiration of the period for filing claim for refund on behalf of the trust for 1954. An adjustment is authorized with respect to the trust for the year 1954.
(d) The application of paragraph (a)(3) of this section may be illustrated by the following example:
Example: A trustee claimed in the trust return for 1954 for amounts paid to the beneficiary a deduction to the extent of distributable net income. This amount was included by the beneficiary in gross income in his return for 1954. In computing distributable net income the trustee had included short and long-term capital gains. In 1958, the Commissioner asserts a deficiency against the trust on the ground that the capital gains were not includible in distributable net income, and that, therefore, the gains were taxable to the trust, not the beneficiary. The deficiency is sustained by a final decision of the Tax Court in 1960, after the expiration of the period for filing claims for refund by the beneficiary for 1954. An adjustment is authorized with respect to the beneficiary's tax for the year 1954, based on the exclusion from 1954 gross income of the capital gains previously considered distributed by the trust under section 662.
(e) The application of paragraph (a)(4) of this section may be illustrated by the following example:
Example: Assume the same facts as in the example in paragraph (d) of this section, except that, instead of the Commissioner's asserting a deficiency, the beneficiary filed a refund claim for 1954 on the same ground. The claim is sustained by the court in 1960 after the expiration of the period of limitations upon deficiency assessments against the trust for 1954. An adjustment is authorized with respect to the trust for the year 1954.
[T.D. 6500, 25 FR 12034, Nov. 26, 1960]
