Example. The M Corporation at some time during the last half of the taxable year, had 1,800 shares of outstanding stock, 450 of which were held by various individuals having no relationship to one another and none of whom were partners, and the remaining 1,350 were held by 51 shareholders as follows:

By applying the statutory rule provided in section 544(a)(2) five individuals own more than 50 percent of the outstanding stock as follows:

Individual A represents the obvious case where the head of the family owns the bulk of the family stock and naturally is the head of the group. A's partner owns 10 shares of the stock. Individual B represents the case where he is still head of the group because of the ownership of stock by his immediate family. Individuals C and D represent cases where the individuals fall in groups headed in C's case by his wife and in D's case by his brother because of the preponderance of holdings on the part of relatives by marriage. Individual E represents the case where the preponderant holdings of others eliminate that individual from the group.