- 12 - More recently, this Court considered the issue in Estate of Marks v. Commissioner, supra at 727-729, and held, as before, that “the deemed surviving spouse is not entitled to the section 2013 credit in a simultaneous death situation.” We indicated that the surviving spouse’s interest was “too ephemeral to be accorded value”. Id. at 729. Likewise, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Estate of Carter v. United States, supra at 64, that an interest “passed between persons dying in a common disaster has no value and thus that the taxpayer is entitled to no credit.” The court once again emphasized that “‘recognized valuation principles’” in section 20.2013-4(a), Estate Tax Regs., “does not refer exclusively to the actuarial tables” and stated that “The paradigm ‘unusual circumstance’ in which mortality tables have not been employed is the simultaneous death of the transferor and transferee.” Id. at 66 & n.6, 67. IV. Interpretation and Application Given the foregoing authority, we first consider whether the principles developed in simultaneous death situations arising prior to the enactment of section 7520 in 1988, see Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988, Pub. L. 100-647, 102 Stat. 3342, retain their validity under the current statutory and regulatory regime. If so, we must then decide whether the case at bar is to be treated as a simultaneous death situation.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011