Brown

The estate tax combines into one sad transaction the only two certainties in life. Upon death, a decedent’s estate must pay a tax on property owned immediately prior to death, subject to certain adjustments. 26 U.S.C. § 2001 et seq.

This appeal involves three of those adjustments. First, we must determine whether the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) properly increased the estate tax owed by the estate of Willet Brown (“the Estate”) under § 2035(c)(1993), a provision which increases the estate tax to account for gift taxes paid in the three years immediately prior to death. To answer that question, we must consider whether the IRS was entitled to apply the “step transaction” doctrine, treating gift taxes paid by Betty Brown as if paid by Willet Brown. The district court determined that the IRS *667 properly ascribed the payment of the gift taxes to Willet Brown, as do we.

The second, more complex issue involves the interaction of two estate tax deductions: the marital deduction (§ 2056) and the administration expense deduction (§ 2053(a)(2)). The Estate argues that it is entitled to increase the administration expense deduction to account for higher-than-expected…