Opinion ID: 1505106
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prolongation of Administration.

Text: The prolongation of administration of an estate is a matter of concern purely of the court having the estate in charge. It is doubtless true that Congress could provide, in a taxing statute, that administration expenses should be deductible only for a specified period or only for a reasonable period, or not at all. It has not done so in the act here applicable. The Department has no authority to impose such a limitation. It has not, in fact, tried to do so. While Article 32 of Regulations 80 is relied on to have this effect and this is sought to be enforced by an expression in Article 35, those provisions are not fairly to be so construed. The mere fact alone of prolongation of administration does not, under the law here applicable, have any effect upon the propriety of the deduction here sought.