Technical Information Release

Technical Information Release  TIR 03-10: Application of Estate of Elise Palmer v. Commissioner of Revenue

Date: 06/09/2003
Organization: Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Referenced Sources: Massachusetts General Laws

Personal Income Tax

In September 2000, the Appellate Tax Board ("Board") decided Estate of Elise Palmer v. Commissioner in favor of the Commissioner, and found that Elise Palmer was a Massachusetts domiciliary at the time of her death on July 29, 1987. App. Tax Bd. Docket # F223424 (September 20, 2000). The taxpayer appealed and on November 21, 2002, the Appeals Court, in a Summary Disposition pursuant to Rule 1:28, reversed the Board's finding, and held that the decedent was a Mississippi domiciliary at the time of her death. Palmer v. Commissioner of Revenue, 56 Mass. App. 1110 (2002). Since the Appeals Court's reversal of the Board's decision was based solely upon a determination that the Board's finding in favor of the Commissioner was not based upon substantial evidence, that reversal turned solely upon the weight accorded to the credible evidence presented by the parties on both sides of the central issue in the case, i.e., whether the decedent intended to change her domicile from Massachusetts to Mississippi just prior to her death. The decision therefore does not alter the Commonwealth's law of domicile for purposes of estate or income taxes as set forth in Massachusetts appellate decisions, or in the Department's TIR 95-7 or its regulation 830 CMR 62.5A.1.

/s/ Sheila T. LeBlanc
for Alan LeBovidge
Commissioner of Revenue

AL:LEM:wem
153512

TIR 03-10

June 9, 2003

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