Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 26 > Subtitle A > Chapter 1 > Subchapter C > Part I - Distributions by Corporations

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• association: when used in reference to a corporation, shall be deemed to embrace the words "successors and assigns of such company or association" in like manner as if these last-named words, or words of similar import, were expressed. See 1 USC 5
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• corporation: includes associations, joint-stock companies, and insurance companies. See 26 USC 7701
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• county: includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States. See 1 USC 2
• county: means county as defined in section 2 of title 1. See 12 USC 3702
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• foreign: when applied to a corporation or partnership means a corporation or partnership which is not domestic. See 26 USC 7701
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• including: when used in a definition contained in this title shall not be deemed to exclude other things otherwise within the meaning of the term defined. See 26 USC 7701
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• levy: includes the power of distraint and seizure by any means. See 26 USC 7701
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• mortgage: means a deed of trust, mortgage, deed to secure debt, security agreement, or any other form of instrument under which any interest in property, real, personal or mixed, or any interest in property including leaseholds, life estates, reversionary interests, and any other estates under applicable State law, is conveyed in trust, mortgaged, encumbered, pledged, or otherwise rendered subject to a lien, for the purpose of securing the payment of money or the performance of an obligation. See 12 USC 3702
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• mortgagor: means the obligor, grantor, or trustor named in the mortgage agreement and, unless the context otherwise indicates, includes the current owner of record of the security property whether or not personally liable on the mortgage debt. See 12 USC 3702
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• paid or accrued: shall be construed according to the method of accounting upon the basis of which the taxable income is computed under subtitle A. See 26 USC 7701
• partner: includes a member in such a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture, or organization. See 26 USC 7701
• partnership: includes a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture, or other unincorporated organization, through or by means of which any business, financial operation, or venture is carried on, and which is not, within the meaning of this title, a trust or estate or a corporation. See 26 USC 7701
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• person: shall be construed to mean and include an individual, a trust, estate, partnership, association, company or corporation. See 26 USC 7701
• person: includes any individual, group of individuals, association, partnership, corporation, or organization. See 12 USC 3702
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate. See 26 USC 7701
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. See 12 USC 3702
• security property: means the property, real, personal or mixed, or an interest in property, including leaseholds, life estates, reversionary interests, and any other estates under applicable State law, together with fixtures and other interests subject to the lien of the mortgage under applicable State law. See 12 USC 3702
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• shareholder: includes a member in an association, joint-stock company, or insurance company. See 26 USC 7701
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• State: means the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories and possessions of the United States, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and Indian tribes as defined by the Secretary. See 12 USC 3702
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• stock: includes shares in an association, joint-stock company, or insurance company. See 26 USC 7701
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tax Court: means the United States Tax Court. See 26 USC 7701
• taxable year: means the calendar year, or the fiscal year ending during such calendar year, upon the basis of which the taxable income is computed under subtitle A. See 26 USC 7701
• taxpayer: means any person subject to any internal revenue tax. See 26 USC 7701
• trade or business: includes the performance of the functions of a public office. See 26 USC 7701
• transaction: includes a series of transactions. See 26 USC 7701
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: when used in a geographical sense includes only the States and the District of Columbia. See 26 USC 7701
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• writing: includes printing and typewriting and reproductions of visual symbols by photographing, multigraphing, mimeographing, manifolding, or otherwise. See 1 USC 1