For years, the regulations for deductibility of administrative expenses in an estate have required those expenses to be actually and necessarily incurred in the administration of the decedent's estate. Some courts have not applied the necessity requirement, holding it invalid in light of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 2053(a)'s requirement that state law governs deductibility. Different degrees of strictness have come from the various courts applying the necessity requirement. In Marcus, the Eleventh Circuit of the Court of Appeals enunciated a new ''practical approach'' for determining deductibility. The court suggested as a test that if it is reasonably necessary to incur the expense during the normal course of the administration and for the benefit of the estate, the expense is deductible. The courts have disagreed on the more fundamental issue of whether the necessity requirement is permissible in light of the statutory directive that state laws will set deductibility criteria.
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