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:
- re "splitting": Do I have to elect splitting? Does it matter?
- 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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