Credit shelter formula bequests · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 2-1.12 Credit shelter formula bequests
If: (a) the decedent dies after January thirty-first, two thousand; and
(b) by reason of the death of the decedent property passes or is acquired from the decedent under a will executed or a trust created prior to February first, two thousand which contains a formula providing, in sum or substance, for a bequest of the maximum amount of property that can be sheltered from federal estate tax by reason of available credits against such tax; and
(c) such formula was not amended at any time after January thirty-first, two thousand and before the death of the decedent, then, unless the instrument containing such formula specifically provides that there are non-tax reasons for taking the federal credit for state death taxes into account, such formula shall be deemed not to include a reference to the federal credit for state death taxes.
For a decedent dying after January 31, 2000, an unamended pre-February 1, 2000 will or trust formula giving the maximum amount sheltered by federal estate-tax credits is read without including the federal state-death-tax credit, unless the instrument specifically says non-tax reasons require including that credit. ★
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Surrogate's Court in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Surrogate's Court: Court Rules & the EPTL; Volume 5 — Your Career: Surrogate's Court in Plain English.