Our estate will be incurring gardening, maintenance and repair expenses in connection with the family residence. Can these expenses be deducted on the estate tax return?
(January 2004) Deductions for these types of expenses, as well as interest, legal, accounting, brokerage fees and the like are a function of what is reasonable and necessary for a particular estate. The Service cannot deny the estate a deduction, for example, when the fiduciary decides to sell one property (even a more expensive one) rather than a lower valued property in order to pay estate taxes and administrative expenses. (Although not a predictor in the particular case of the reader or guarantee of a result in any given matter, we have been through audit on that issue and a client received a nice refund when tax was otherwise claimed due on this issue.) Some of the most important questions will be: whether the property will be sold to meet obligations; whether the retention of the property is needed for administration purposes and not as a matter of beneficiary convenience; the duration of the time of the retention (at least until preliminary distribution can be reasonably made, i
