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OPINION
In general, a marital deduction is available in computing the
taxable estate of a decedent for the value of all property
interests passing from the decedent to the surviving spouse. Sec.
2056(a). Here, petitioner asserts that it is entitled to a
$7,305,191 marital deduction, whereas respondent claims petitioner
is entitled to a $5,603,819 marital deduction.
At the time decedent executed his will on July 10, 1980, the
maximum marital deduction permitted was limited to the greater of
$250,000 or 50 percent of the value of a decedent's adjusted gross
estate. ERTA eliminated this limitation for persons dying after
December 31, 1981. The intent of Congress in repealing the marital
deduction quantitative limits was to treat a husband and wife as
one economic unit and to allow unlimited tax-free transfers within
that unit. S. Rept. 97-144, at 127 (1981), 1981-2 C.B. 412, 461.
Wills drafted before 1982 typically included maximum marital
deduction formula clauses (similar to that contained in article
four, paragraph A, of decedent's will) under which the amount of
property transferred to the surviving spouse was determined by
reference to the maximum allowable marital deduction. The purpose
of the marital deduction formula clause was to reduce or eliminate
Federal estate taxes imposed on the estate of the first spouse to
die while passing no more to the surviving spouse than necessary to
produce such a reduction or elimination. Because these wills were
drafted when there was a quantitative limitation on the maximum
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