Treasury Regulations · 26 CFR
§ 20.2055-3. Effect of death taxes and administration expenses.
Regulation text, no changes From the eCFR, current as of October 15, 2026. The eCFR is an authoritative but unofficial editorial compilation of the Code of Federal Regulations; the official text is the annual CFR on govinfo. Compare it with this section on ecfr.gov (external site) or the official annual CFR on govinfo (external site).
Regulation under 26 U.S.C. § 2055
Cite as 26 CFR § 20.2055-3
At a glance
Read from the text and its source citation. Not part of the regulation.
- Status
- In the current eCFR
- Issued
- June 24, 1958 by T.D. 6296
- Last amended
- December 20, 1999
- Issued under
- 26 U.S.C. § 2055
- Length
- 1,240 words · about 5 min to read
- Cross-references
- cites 4 Code sections and 3 regulations; cited by 0
¶(a) Death taxes.
¶(1) If under the terms of the will or other governing instruments, the law of the jurisdiction under which the estate is administered, or the law of the jurisdiction imposing the particular tax, the Federal estate tax, or any estate, succession, legacy, or inheritance tax is payable in whole or in part out of any property the transfer of which would otherwise be allowable as a deduction under section 2055, section 2055(c) provides that the sum deductible is the amount of the transferred property reduced by the amount of the tax. Section 2055(c) in effect provides that the deduction is based on the amount actually available for charitable uses, that is, the amount of the fund remaining after the payment of all death taxes. Thus, if $50,000 is bequeathed for a charitable purpose and is subjected to a State inheritance tax of $5,000, payable out of the $50,000, the amount deductible is $45,000. If a life estate is bequeathed to an individual with remainder over to a charitable organization, and by the local law the inheritance tax upon the life estate is paid out of the corpus with the result that the charitable organization will be entitled to receive only the amount of the fund less the tax, the deduction is limited to the present value, as of the date of the testator's death, of the remainder of the fund so reduced. If a testator bequeaths his residuary estate, or a portion of it, to charity, and his will contains a direction that certain inheritance taxes, otherwise payable from legacies upon which they were imposed, shall be payable out of the residuary estate, the deduction may not exceed the bequest to charity thus reduced pursuant to the direction of the will. If a residuary estate, or a portion of it, is bequested to charity, and by the local law the Federal estate tax is payable out of the residuary estate, the deduction may not exceed that portion of the residuary estate bequeathed to charity as reduced by the Federal estate tax. The return should fully disclose the computation of the amount to be deducted. If the amount to be deducted is dependent upon the amount of any death tax which has not been paid before the filing of the return, there should be submitted with the return a computation of that tax.
¶(2) It should be noted that if the Federal estate tax is payable out of a charitable transfer so that the amount of the transfer otherwise passing to charity is reduced by the amount of the tax, the resultant decrease in the amount passing to charity will further reduce the allowable deduction. In such a case, the amount of the charitable deduction can be obtained only by a series of trial-and-error computations, or by a formula. If, in addition, interdependent State and Federal taxes are involved, the computation becomes highly complicated. Examples of methods of computation of the charitable deduction and the marital deduction (with which similar problems are encountered) in various situations are contained in supplemental instructions to the estate tax return.
¶(3) For the allowance of a deduction to a decedent's estate for certain State death taxes imposed upon charitable transfers, see section 2053(d) and § 20.2053-9.
¶(b) Administration expenses—
¶(1) Definitions—
¶(i) Management expenses. Estate management expenses are expenses that are incurred in connection with the investment of estate assets or with their preservation or maintenance during a reasonable period of administration. Examples of these expenses could include investment advisory fees, stock brokerage commissions, custodial fees, and interest.
¶(ii) Transmission expenses. Estate transmission expenses are expenses that would not have been incurred but for the decedent's death and the consequent necessity of collecting the decedent's assets, paying the decedent's debts and death taxes, and distributing the decedent's property to those who are entitled to receive it. Estate transmission expenses include any administration expense that is not a management expense. Examples of these expenses could include executor commissions and attorney fees (except to the extent of commissions or fees specifically related to investment, preservation, or maintenance of the assets), probate fees, expenses incurred in construction proceedings and defending against will contests, and appraisal fees.
¶(iii) Charitable share. The charitable share is the property or interest in property that passed from the decedent for which a deduction is allowable under section 2055(a) with respect to all or part of the property interest. The charitable share includes, for example, bequests to charitable organizations and bequests to a charitable lead unitrust or annuity trust, a charitable remainder unitrust or annuity trust, and a pooled income fund, described in section 2055(e)(2). The charitable share also includes the income produced by the property or interest in property during the period of administration if the income, under the terms of the governing instrument or applicable local law, is payable to the charitable organization or is to be added to the principal of the property interest passing in whole or in part to the charitable organization.
¶(2) Effect of transmission expenses. For purposes of determining the charitable deduction, the value of the charitable share shall be reduced by the amount of the estate transmission expenses paid from the charitable share.
¶(3) Effect of management expenses attributable to the charitable share. For purposes of determining the charitable deduction, the value of the charitable share shall not be reduced by the amount of the estate management expenses attributable to and paid from the charitable share. Pursuant to section 2056(b)(9), however, the amount of the allowable charitable deduction shall be reduced by the amount of any such management expenses that are deducted under section 2053 on the decedent's federal estate tax return.
¶(4) Effect of management expenses not attributable to the charitable share. For purposes of determining the charitable deduction, the value of the charitable share shall be reduced by the amount of the estate management expenses paid from the charitable share but attributable to a property interest not included in the charitable share.
¶(5) Example. The following example illustrates the application of this paragraph (b):
¶Example.
The decedent, who dies in 2000, leaves his residuary estate, after the payment of debts, expenses, and estate taxes, to a charitable remainder unitrust that satisfies the requirements of section 664(d). During the period of administration, the estate incurs estate transmission expenses of $400,000. The residue of the estate (the charitable share) must be reduced by the $400,000 of transmission expenses and by the Federal and State estate taxes before the present value of the remainder interest passing to charity can be determined in accordance with the provisions of § 1.664-4 of this chapter. Because the estate taxes are payable out of the residue, the computation of the estate taxes and the allowable charitable deduction are interrelated. See paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
¶(6) Cross reference. See § 20.2056(b)-4(d) for additional examples applicable to the treatment of administration expenses under this paragraph (b).
¶(7) Effective date. The provisions of this paragraph (b) apply to estates of decedents dying on or after December 3, 1999.
[T.D. 6296, 23 FR 4529, June 24, 1958; 25 FR 14021, Dec. 31, 1960, as amended by T.D. 8846, 64 FR 67764, Dec. 3, 1999; 64 FR 71022, Dec. 20, 1999]
Cross-references
Computed from the citations in the text of 26 CFR.
Code sections it cites
- § 2055 Transfers for public, charitable, and religious uses
- § 2053 Expenses, indebtedness, and taxes
- § 2056 Bequests, etc., to surviving spouse
- § 664 Charitable remainder trusts
Regulations it cites
Amendment history
From the source citation at the end of the section, newest first. T.D. is a Treasury decision; FR is the Federal Register.
- Amended (64 FR 71022)
- Amended by T.D. 8846 (64 FR 67764)
- Amended (25 FR 14021)
- Issued by T.D. 6296 (23 FR 4529)
Where it sits in 26 CFR
- Subchapter B Estate and gift taxes
- Part 20 Estate tax; estates of decedents dying after august 16, 1954
- Taxable Estate
Nearby sections
- § 20.2053-10 Deduction for certain foreign death taxes.
- § 20.2054-1 Deduction for losses from casualties or theft.
- § 20.2055-1 Deduction for transfers for public, charitable, and religious uses; in general.
- § 20.2055-2 Transfers not exclusively for charitable purposes.
- § 20.2055-3 Effect of death taxes and administration expenses.
- § 20.2055-4 Disallowance of charitable, etc., deductions because of “prohibited transactions” in the case of decedents dying before January 1, 1970.
- § 20.2055-5 Disallowance of charitable, etc., deductions in the case of decedents dying after December 31, 1969.
- § 20.2055-6 Disallowance of double deduction in the case of qualified terminable interest property.
- § 20.2056-0 Table of contents.