My point is, One can leave assets worth up to the exempt amount (again, $5.25 million for deaths in 2013 and $5.34 million in 2014) to anyone, including one's noncitizen spouse, without owing any federal estate tax.
26 USC 2056 only says the "taxable estate" = "gross estate" - "marital deduction", and 2056(d)(1) provides that martial deduction does not apply to non-citizen spouse. Therefore under 2056, when a US citizen married to non-citizen spouse dies, the US citizen's "taxable estate = gross estate". But his taxable estate is not subject to estate tax if the total amount is < $ 5.34 mil in 2014, no matter who is in line for inheritance.
Your justification of providing less tax break for non-citizen spouse is valid. The law provides other limitations to non-citizen spouse, e.g. non-citizen cannot inherit unused estate exemption from the dead spouse; any jointly owned property are treated as wholly owned by the dead citizen spouse and added to his gross estate (instead of 1/2 for couple of both US citizens).
Again, I am not an expert like you, and I am entirely aware that I could be wrong. But I think the statement in my first paragraph is correct, and most middle-class couple with one non-citizen spouse do not need to worry about paying a huge estate tax on a small estate.
26 USC 2056 only says the "taxable estate" = "gross estate" - "marital deduction", and 2056(d)(1) provides that martial deduction does not apply to non-citizen spouse. Therefore under 2056, when a US citizen married to non-citizen spouse dies, the US citizen's "taxable estate = gross estate". But his taxable estate is not subject to estate tax if the total amount is < $ 5.34 mil in 2014, no matter who is in line for inheritance.
Your justification of providing less tax break for non-citizen spouse is valid. The law provides other limitations to non-citizen spouse, e.g. non-citizen cannot inherit unused estate exemption from the dead spouse; any jointly owned property are treated as wholly owned by the dead citizen spouse and added to his gross estate (instead of 1/2 for couple of both US citizens).
Again, I am not an expert like you, and I am entirely aware that I could be wrong. But I think the statement in my first paragraph is correct, and most middle-class couple with one non-citizen spouse do not need to worry about paying a huge estate tax on a small estate.
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