TAXATION-FEDERAL ESTATE TAX-RELEVANCE OF MARITAL DEDUCTION TO COMPUTATION OF WIDOW'S DISTRIBUTIVE SHARE OF HUSBAND'S ESTATE WHERE SHE ELECTS TO TAKE AGAINST WILL

Authors

Alice Austin, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

A widow electing to take against her husband's will claimed to be entitled to have her one-third share of decedent's net personal estate computed without deduction of federal estate taxes, on the theory that Congress in allowing the marital deduction intended that a widow's share qualifying for such deduction should be free of the impact of the federal estate tax. The state had no statute providing for apportionment of federal estate taxes. Held: Congress did not intend, by allowing the marital deduction, to change the rule that state law is determinative of the impact of the federal estate tax. Since apportionment of federal estate taxes is a matter of policy for the state legislature, a widow electing to take against the will is not entitled to have her one-third share of decedent's net personal estate computed without deduction of federal estate taxes where the state has no apportionment statute. In re Uihlein's Will, 264 Wis. 362, 59 N.W. (2d) 641 (1953).

Recommended Citation

Alice Austin, TAXATION-FEDERAL ESTATE TAX-RELEVANCE OF MARITAL DEDUCTION TO COMPUTATION OF WIDOW'S DISTRIBUTIVE SHARE OF HUSBAND'S ESTATE WHERE SHE ELECTS TO TAKE AGAINST WILL, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1078 (1954).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol52/iss7/17