form 706 martial deduction\community property

I am looking for some help I am working on a Form 706 for a California couple in a community property state. The estate is worth $4 million gross so were trying to use as much of the $2 million credit as possible income to fund the bypass (decedent trust) Half the assets are titled Joint tenancy which are mandatory martial deduction which will pass to the survivor's trust. The other half of the assets are in the name of revocable family trust which are considered community propety according to the trust. My question is do the family trust titled assets which are community property have to be included in the mandatory martial deduction as were trying to use as much of the $2million exemption as possible.

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This question doesn't make complete sense in a couple of ways. Do you mean the decedent's portion is worth $4 million, or that's the value of what both the spouses have?

How in the world can joint tenancy property pass to the survivor's trust? Was the trust a joint tenant? This makes no sense to me.

Assuming the decedent's portion is worth $4 million by itself, the marital deduction is already used up based on what you said. The joint tenancy property should automatically go to the surviving spouse, so its value will be included in the marital deduction. If that's half, you've used up the $2 million you wanted to use. The balance does not need to be included in the marital deduction if the trust is drafted properly.

If each spouse owns half of the $4 million, your problem is much smaller but the issues are the same.

Stu