Take the situation of a father and a mother, each of whom have been giving their adult son the max allowable gift per year for several years.
Now, the father dies, but the mother, who inherits all of the father's worldly belongings, would like to continue gifting the son as if the father were still alive. So she decides she will continue gifting her son as before, but to provide the prior amount the father used to provide, she decides to gift to her adult brother with the understanding that he would then gift this amount to the son.
This sounds kosher enough and would indeed provide the son with the same amount he used to receive when the father was alive.. But is there any way in which the irs would see this as an attempt to somehow 'work around' the system, and not view it kindly? I know each gift is clearly allowable, but Im just wondering if the irs would view it in another way... IF they could track down the gift to her brother, and then his gift to the son, would they look at this as a way to defraud the system? I dont even see how they track it, unless they happened to be examining both their estates at the same time, but i was just wondering.
Paul