or transfer, and are not themselves taxed. (Plummer v. Coler, 178 U. S. 115; 205 S. Ct. 829.)

The amount of the tax is measured by the sum or property received by the legatee. (Matter of Hoffman, 143 N. Y. 327; Matter of Westurn, 152 N. Y. 93.)

Five hundred dollars not exempt.

The statute does not mean that taxable estates are exempt from taxation to the extent of $500, but that only such estates as equal or exceed $500 are taxable. (Matter of Sherwell, 125 N. Y. 376.) A legacy of $500 is of a fair market value on its face and subject to taxation. (Matter of Bird, 32 St. Rep. 899; Matter of Kavanagh, 6 Supp. 669.) But a bequest of $500, payable one year from the granting of letters, is not taxable, because the appraisal is made of the value of the bequest at the time of the death. (Matter of Peck, 9 Supp. 465.) Where an equity in devised lands subject to a mortgage is less than $500, it is exempt from taxation. (Matter of Kene, 8 Misc. 102.)

Property taxable.

A foreign estate is liable to the legacy tax. (Matter of Craig, 15 Supp. 548.) So are life insurance policies held by the testator at the time of his death and payable to himself, his executors, administrators, assigns, and legal representatives. (Matter of Knoedler, 140 N. Y. 377, aff'g s. c. 68 Hun, 150.) Funds on deposit to the credit of a partition suit to which the deceased was a party, are not to be considered real property and therefore exempt. (Matter of Stiger, 7 Misc. 268.) A bequest in trust for masses, if not contained in funeral expense clause, is taxable. (Matter of Black,

3 Supp. 452.) Legacies to the United States are taxable under this Act, the United States being a foreign corporation as far as the State of New York is concerned. (Matter of Merriam, 141 N. Y. 479, aff'g 73 Hun, 587; Matter of Cullom, 145 N. Y. 593, aff'g 76 Hun, 610, 5 Misc. 173.) Stocks of foreign corporations owned by a resident of the state are taxable on his death, under this Act. (Matter of Merriam, 141 N. Y. 479, overruling in effect Matter of Thomas, 3 Misc. 388.) A devise to a foreign corporation, enabled by chapter 557 of 1893, to take by devise and hold property in this state within existing statutory limitations, is taxable under the will of a decedent who died in January, 1894. (Matter of Wolfe, 23 Misc. 439.) The proceeds of a seat in the New York Stock Exchange are taxable. (Matter of Curtis, 31 Misc. 83.) The distributive share of a child in the real estate of her father, directed by his will to be converted into money, but not converted at the time of her death, is personalty as to her, and the succession thereto of her legatee is subject to the tax. (Matter of Mills, 32 Misc. 493.)

Interest of decedent in co-partnership of which he was a member.

The individual debts of a deceased member of copartnership doing business in New York and in another state, and having personalty in both states, cannot be deducted from the taxable value of the New York assets alone; those assets are only subject to be reduced by such proportion of his individual debts as they bear to his whole personal estate. The share of a deceased co-partner in partnership assets, part of

which are in this state and part in another state, is liable to the transfer tax to the extent of his interest in the assets habitually kept in this state; and the debts owing to New York creditors cannot be deducted from the New York assets in determining the value of the taxable estate. The entire firm assets must be valued and any firm obligations ascertained; and the net assets in this state will be ascertained by deducting from their gross value such fraction of the entire obligations as the New York assets bear to the total assets. In computing assets, partnership real property must be omitted, for the reason that subject to the rights of creditors and surviving partners, it is real estate and not taxable if located here; and if located elsewhere, it must be applied in payment of debts only after personalty is exhausted. Individual property of the decedent is not to be considered for the same reason. (Matter of King, 30 Misc. 575.)

An agreement between co-partners "that all the real and personal property, estate and effects heretofore held, or now or hereafter held in the joint name or individual name of either of them, are held and owned by the (co-partners) jointly, where the same has been, or is, in their joint names or name, or in the individual name of either of them," does not constitute a strict joint-tenancy in the property, and the interest descending to the children of a deceased co-partner therein is taxable. (Matter of Wormser, 51 App. Div. 441.)

Interest under a trust deed.

Where a deed of trust provided that the net income was to go to the father (the donor of the trust) or his

order during his life, and after his death to one of the beneficiaries during the latter's life, and afterward to those who might be designated in the will of such beneficiary, or to his children, and is subsequently modified by written instrument directing that the income arising from the trust fund transferred to the trustee be payable to the father until that authority should be revoked by him in writing, does not vest the beneficiary named therein with any right of property until the death of the grantor, and the property so conveyed comes within the provisions of the Transfer Tax Law. (Matter of Masury, 28 App. Div. 580.)

Transfer tax paid in foreign states.

The transfer of stock in New York corporations owned by a resident of Pennsylvania at her death in October, 1895, is taxable without deduction for the amount of a legacy tax paid in Pennsylvania upon the entire estate. That the legacy has been or will be taxed in a foreign state cannot be considered by our courts. (Matter of Kennedy, 20 Misc. 531.)

Property not taxable.

Property taxable under the inheritance tax laws of other states is none the less taxable under the laws of this state. (Matter of Burr, 16 Misc. 89.) But the succession under the laws of a foreign state to personal property within this state, belonging to nonresident decedents, cannot be taxed here. (Matter of Embury, 19 App. Div. 214.)

Interests in estates which vested prior to the passage of the Act, not subject to be divested, are not taxable. (Matter of Travis, 19 Misc. 393.) Nor does

the Act apply to legacies not payable until after its passage where the testator died before. (Matter of Coggswell, 4 Dem. 248.) Proceeds from the gratuity fund of the New York Produce Exchange, payable to beneficiaries by virtue of the by-laws of that exchange and not by virtue of the will of the decedent, or of any administration of his estate, are not taxable. (Matter of Fay, 25 Misc. 468.)

A legacy to a person since deceased, impressed with a secret trust under which her brother took the bene. ficial interest, cannot be taxed against the estate of the legatee. (Matter of Edson, 24 Misc. 356.) Property bequeathed to a daughter by a mother, the legatee dying before the mother's estate has been administered, the right of the legatee of the daughter to receive the legacy after administration is not such a property right as requires such legatee, before she has received the legacy, to pay the transfer tax thereon. (Matter of Chabot, 44 App. Div. 340.) Stocks pledged to brokers as collateral for a loan, sold by them subsequent to the death of the pledgor for an amount insufficient to repay the loan, is not liable to be assessed for a transfer tax. (Matter of Havemeyer, 32 Misc. 416.) Although a clear equitable conversion is established by the testator's will, the tax cannot be assessed upon the succession to the equity of redemption in the real estate. (Matter of Sutton, 15 Misc. 659; but see Matter of Wheeler, 51 St. Rep. 513.) Real property without the state, devised by the will of a resident, is not taxable. (Matter of Lorrilard, 6 Dem. 268; Matter of Swift, 137 N. Y. 77.) Where the personal estate of the deceased consisted exclusively of a distributive share in the estate of a deceased sister