Use Available Exclusion Portability

At time of second death, select if an allowable Deceased Spousal Unused Exclusion Amount should be applied.

As part of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, the definition of the federal estate tax exclusion amount was changed to increase the exclusion amount in the estate of a surviving spouse by the exclusion that was not used in the estate of the first spouse to die. Allowing the estate of the surviving spouse to use the "deceased spousal unused exclusion amount" )or DSUEA) is often described as "portability" of the federal exclusion amount.

In order for the surviving spouse to have the benefit of the DSUEA, there must be an estate tax return filed at the first death even if there is no estate tax due and even if there is no estate to report.

The surviving spouse can also lose the benefit of the DSUEA through remarriage if the second spouse also dies, because the DSUEA will be based on the DSUEA from the second spouse and not the first.

Select "No" for "Use Available Exclusion Portability" to show the tax consequences if the surviving spouse were to lose the benefit of the DSUEA by failing to file a federal estate tax return at the first death, or through remarriage.