In the case of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate of Field, 1944, the U.S Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a gift tax applied to transfers made in trust where the donor retained an interest for life. The court ruled that such transfers were not subject to gift taxes under Section 501(c) of the Revenue Act of 1932. This decision was based on their interpretation that Congress did not intend for this provision to apply when there is no complete and absolute transfer by a donor during his lifetime. Therefore, since Mr. Field had retained an income interest in these trusts until his death, he still possessed some degree of control over them and they could not be considered as completed gifts subject to taxation.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate of Field argued that the majority's decision to include gifts made within two years prior to death as part of a decedent’s gross estate for tax purposes was inconsistent with previous court rulings and legislative intent. The dissent pointed out that Congress had specifically excluded such gifts from taxation under the 1926 Revenue Act, which remained unchanged until its amendment in 1932. Therefore, it was not appropriate for the Court to reinterpret this provision retroactively. Furthermore, they contended that there were no clear indications from Congress suggesting an intention to change their original stance on taxing these types of transfers posthumously. They also criticized the majority's reliance on certain English cases as precedent because those cases dealt with different legal issues under a completely distinct system of law.