- 49 - spouse during her lifetime. Otherwise, they would be forced to sell the family farm in order to pay estate taxes in excess of $8 million, and that would not be in the "best interests" of the surviving spouse. Id. at 964. On the other hand, if the trustees had chosen to decline to make the QTIP election, then the "best interests" of the surviving spouse would permit the accumulation of income. Petitioner is asking this Court to do something that the Court of Appeals in Ellingson did not do. Petitioner asks us to find that the trustees are required to pay all of the income from the trust to Mrs. Rapp on the ground that it is in Mrs. Rapp's "best interests", for the trust to qualify for the marital deduction. Unlike the Ellingson case, however, there is no evidence in the trust instrument that the decedent intended such result. Therefore, the Ellingson case does not govern this one. In fact, the Court of Appeals specifically distinguished its opinion from Wisely v. United States, 893 F.2d 660 (4th Cir. 1990); Estate of Doherty v. Commissioner, 95 T.C. 446 (1990); and Estate of Nicholson v. Commissioner, 94 T.C. 666 (1990), which it described as cases in which there was "no clearly manifested intent" in the instrument that the trustPage: Previous 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Next
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