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confused by gift tax (form 709)

My mother this year, and my father the year before. I am executor for my mother's estate. Last year, before my father died, they gave my brother some property worth ~$100K. After he died, my mother gave my brother ~$11K in cash. I believe they should have filed form 709, even though no tax would be owed. But, they didn't, so I'm trying to do that. Questions:

  1. re "splitting": Do I have to elect splitting? Does it matter?
  2. re Schedule A ('Part 1'): If I split, I assign half the gift's value to each parent, but then add these back together to carry to the tax computation on the first page. So, line 1 would show the total amount given. Since I have to file a 709 for each parent, wouldn't this mean that I'd be reporting twice the value of the gift? (The IRS says they "can't give line-by-line help". We have a probate attorney, but this seems to be a little out of scope for her. It doesn't seem like this should be so complicated that I need to hire a tax accountant.) Thanks, George

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Reply to
George
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How large were their taxable estates for estate tax purposes? If each estate was worth under $2,000,000, it doesn't matter.

You should hire an accountant, if for nothing else than for the final income tax returns for your parents and for the income tax for their respective estates. But again, if the estates aren't large enough to require a Form 706 (Estate Tax Return) no gift tax will be due in any case, so I wouldn't worry about it. Stu

Reply to
Stuart Bronstein

It allows two annual exclusions, one for each parent.

You would file a 709 for each parent reporting one-half the gift on each return.

The fact that you are posting here would tend to discount your supposition.

Reply to
Brian

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