Article on The Principles of the Marital and Charitable Deductions

Edward A. McCoyd and Jon Perrelle (Garden City, New York) recently published an article entitled, Anatomy of an Anomaly: How the QDOT Credit Provisions Defy Logic and the Principles of the Marital and Charitable Deductions,  ACTEC, Vol. 38, No. 2 and 3 (Fall 2012/Winter 2012).  Provided below is the introduction to the article:

The marital deduction is one of the most commonly used estate planning tools. In the estate tax context, the marital deduction is, in  most instances, relatively straightforward: it permits an estate to deduct the full value of property that is transferred from the decedent to his or her surviving spouse. One situation in which the marital deduction is not so simple, however, is where the surviving spouse is not a U.S. citizen.