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the settlement agreement that the annuity payments were intended
to benefit decedent alone.
Even the inventory prepared for the Wayne County Probate
Court bears a degree of corroborative value. As of February 14,
2001, decedent’s parents apparently viewed the annuities as part
of decedent’s probate estate, representing $1,118,000 of the
reported total assets of $1,535,853. The evidence further
suggests that this document was in fact filed with the probate
court on March 9, 2001, accompanied by payment of a $1,331.25
inventory fee. The Court takes judicial notice of the fact that
the probate inventory fee imposed under Michigan law is computed
based on the size of the estate and that $1,331.25 corresponds to
the fee that would be due on an estate of $1,535,853. See Mich.
Comp. Laws Serv. sec. 600.871 (LexisNexis 2004); see also Fed. R.
Evid. 201; Estate of Reis v. Commissioner, 87 T.C. 1016, 1026-
1027 (1986).
Although both parties concurred that amended inventories
excluding the annuities were provided to the IRS, no such
documents were proffered as evidence, nor was there any
indication that a refund of some portion of the inventory fee was
sought or obtained from the probate court. Rather, it is
noteworthy that $1,451.25 was claimed as an administrative
expense labeled Wayne County Probate Court on the Form 706 signed
on July 27, 2001. This would seem to correlate with the
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