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Title 26 — Internal Revenue CodeRelease 119-73

§2043 Transfers for Insufficient Consideration

Title 26 › Subtitle Subtitle B— Estate and Gift Taxes › Chapter 11— ESTATE TAX › Subchapter A— Estates of Citizens or Residents › Part III— GROSS ESTATE › § 2043

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

If someone made a lifetime transfer that gets pulled back into their estate at death (under the rules for transfers in sections 2035 through 2038 and 2041) and they received some payment for it, but not a full fair price, only the difference counts: the property's value at death minus what they were paid. Giving up dower, curtesy, or other marital rights in a spouse's property does not count as payment at all. But certain divorce-related property settlements that meet the rules of section 2516 are treated as made for full value when figuring deductible debts and expenses.

Full Legal Text

Title 26, §2043

Internal Revenue Code — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)If any one of the transfers, trusts, interests, rights, or powers enumerated and described in sections 2035 to 2038, inclusive, and section 2041 is made, created, exercised, or relinquished for a consideration in money or money’s worth, but is not a bona fide sale for an adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth, there shall be included in the gross estate only the excess of the fair market value at the time of death of the property otherwise to be included on account of such transaction, over the value of the consideration received therefor by the decedent.
(b)(1)For purposes of this chapter, a relinquishment or promised relinquishment of dower or curtesy, or of a statutory estate created in lieu of dower or curtesy, or of other marital rights in the decedent’s property or estate, shall not be considered to any extent a consideration “in money or money’s worth”.
(2)For purposes of section 2053 (relating to expenses, indebtedness, and taxes), a transfer of property which satisfies the requirements of paragraph (1) of section 2516 (relating to certain property settlements) shall be considered to be made for an adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1984—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 98–369 amended subsec. (b) generally, designating existing provisions as par. (1) and adding par. (2).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1984 Amendment Pub. L. 98–369, div. A, title IV, § 425(c)(1), July 18, 1984, 98 Stat. 804, provided that: “The

Amendments

made by subsection (a) [amending this section and section 2053 of this title] shall apply to estates of decedents dying after the date of the enactment of this Act [July 18, 1984].”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

26 U.S.C. § 2043

Title 26 — Internal Revenue Code

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73