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banking business, in their joint names and payable to
either or the survivor, except such part thereof as may
be shown to have originally belonged to such other
person and never to have been received or acquired by
the latter from decedent for less than an adequate and
full consideration in money or money's worth: * * *
Section 2040 establishes a "contribution test", whereby the
estate of the deceased joint tenant must generally include the
value of the entire property less the portion of the property
attributable to the consideration furnished by the surviving
joint tenant.6 Hahn v. Commissioner, 110 T.C. 140, 144 (1998).
If part of the consideration is found to have been contributed in
money or money's worth by the surviving joint tenant, then the
part of the value of the property that is proportionate to such
consideration is not included in decedent's gross estate. Estate
of Anderson v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1989-643; sec. 20.2040-
1(a)(2), Estate Tax Regs.
Petitioner first argues that Ms. Friedeberg contributed
consideration in the form of "money" to the value of the assets
6In 1976, subsec. (b) of sec. 2040 was added to the Code by
sec. 2002(c)(1) of the Tax Reform Act of 1976, Pub. L. 94-455, 90
Stat. 1520, 1855. The 1976 amendment created a special rule
where the joint tenants were husband and wife. Hahn v.
Commissioner, 110 T.C. 140, 145 (1998). If the interest were a
"qualified joint interest", only one-half of the value of the
property owned in joint tenancy was includable in decedent's
gross estate, without regard to which spouse furnished the
consideration to acquire the jointly held property. Id.
Decedent and Ms. Friedeberg were never married. Therefore, sec.
2040(b) does not operate to affect the amount includable in
decedent's estate.
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