Tax Apportionment & Mississippi

The Mississippi estate tax apportionment statute apportions taxes against “all persons interested in the estate” which includes donees of inter vivos gifts “included in the decedent’s taxable estate.”

The decedent’s will apportioned taxes against each bequest and directed that adjusted taxable gifts be treated as bequests for apportionment purposes.  The donee of large inter vivos taxable gifts not included in the taxable estate resisted payment of the tax.

The court in In re Estate of Necaise, 915 So. 2d 449 (Miss. 2005), held that the donee was a person interested in the estate and that the will’s apportionment provision must be enforced.