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which ignores subjective factors of ownership in valuing estate
assets. Estate of Bonner v. United States, supra at 198.
Ultimately, respondent reviewed this position and conceded that,
for estate tax purposes, respondent would follow Estate of Bright
v. United States, supra, and Propstra v. United States, supra,
where family attribution had been rejected. See Rev. Rul. 93-12,
1993-1 C.B. 202.
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed
respondent's aggregation theory in Propstra v. United States,
supra. In Propstra, the decedent died with an undivided one-half
interest in several parcels of real estate owned by him and his
wife as community property. These parcels of community property
had an undisputed fair market value of $4,002,000, but, in
valuing the property for estate tax purposes, the executrix
discounted the fair market value of the decedent's one-half
interest by 15 percent to account for the relative
unmarketability of the decedent's undivided fractional interest.
The Commissioner disallowed the 15-percent discount, arguing that
the decedent's interest in the property should be valued together
with the interest owned by the surviving spouse. "[O]ne can
reasonably assume that the interest held by the estate will
ultimately be sold with the other undivided interest and that
interest's proportionate share of the market value of the whole
will thereby by realized." Id. at 1251.
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