Dorothy Gould Burns (March 24, 1904 – July 6, 1969), known as Baroness Dorothy de Graffenried de Villars, was the subject of a court case concerning when a United States citizen who lives overseas has undergone
expatriation or has become a
dual national
Multiple/dual citizenship (or multiple/dual nationality) is a legal status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a national or citizen of more than one country under the laws of those countries. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on t ...
and thus still subject to United States taxation.
Early life
Dorothy Gould was born in
New York City in 1904 to
Frank Jay Gould and
Helen Margaret Kelly. Her parents divorced and her father remarried twice, including to
Florence La Caze whom he married in 1923 and remained married until his death in 1956. Her sister, Helen Marguerite Gould, was the wife of Raymond, Baron of Montenach.
She was the granddaughter of the railroad magnate
Jay Gould.
In 1919 she left the United States for Europe, and she never re-established a legal residence in the United States.
Personal life
On May 5, 1925, she married a Swiss citizen, Baron Roland Graffenried de Villars (1899–1978) in Paris at a private ceremony at the Church of Notre Dame de Passy. Roland was the second son of Baron Eduard Anton Friedrich Paul Maria Graffenried de Villars and Laure Therese Marie de Chollet. He briefly worked with her father.
Before their divorce in 1936, they had two daughters:
* Rolande Graffenried de Villars (b. 1925)
* Dorothy Graffenried de Villars (b. 1927), who married Alexandre Borgia.
They divorced and she later married Jacques Auguste Maurice Juge. They also divorced.
During this period she traveled as a citizen of the United States using a
United States passport
United States passports are passports issued to citizens and nationals of the United States of America. They are issued exclusively by the U.S. Department of State. Besides passports (in booklet form), limited-use passport cards are issued by ...
which expired in 1934. The
United States Department of State refused to renew her United States passport, so she traveled under an "
affidavit in lieu of passport" issued by the
American Consulate
The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...
in Switzerland. When the Germans occupied France, she returned to the United States in 1941 on a newly issued
United States passport
United States passports are passports issued to citizens and nationals of the United States of America. They are issued exclusively by the U.S. Department of State. Besides passports (in booklet form), limited-use passport cards are issued by ...
. She remained only briefly and entered
Cuba where she met her second husband, Archibald Burns, a Mexican national of Scottish parents. She traveled with him to Mexico where they married in 1944. He might have been a polo player.
She died on July 6, 1969.
Estate and taxation
When her estate's executor applied for a $24,000 refund relating to certain gift and income taxes she had paid on the grounds that she had abandoned US citizenship, the
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
disputed the claim, asserting that the abandonment never took place, and her estate was thus also liable to $3.25 million in
estate tax. The US position was upheld by the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and subsequently affirmed by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit held that the estate could not succeed in its claim, because of the doctrines of
estoppel
Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems whereby a court may prevent or "estop" a person from making assertions or from going back on his or her word; the person being sanctioned is "estopped". Estoppel may prevent someone from ...
and
laches that arose out of her assertions that she had remained an American citizen.
See also
*
Citizenship in the United States
*
United States nationality law
United States nationality law details the conditions in which a person holds United States nationality. In the United States, nationality is typically obtained through provisions in the U.S. constitution, U.S. Constitution, various laws, and ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Dorothy Gould
1904 births
1969 deaths
United States nationality law
History of taxation in the United States
Personal taxes in the United States
Inheritance tax
Wealth in the United States
United States taxation and revenue case law
Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Characters
*Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum
* Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...
Swiss nobility