In re the Estate of Ettinger

*309OPINION OF THE COURT

Renee R. Roth, S.

This contested accounting raises novel issues, namely, whether testator’s adjusted taxable gifts to his sons made shortly before his death and used as income tax deductions should reduce the unified credit formula legacy.

The will of Sidney Ettinger, like many wills executed since the enactment of the Ecomonic Recovery Act of 1981 (ERTA), attempts to coordinate the use of the unified credit (Internal Revenue Code [26 USC] §§2010, 2505) with the unlimited estate and gift marital deduction (Internal Revenue Code §§ 2056, 2523) so as to achieve a zero Federal…