I will spare you the details on why I want to do this, but I want to give my wife a brokerage account in my name and take one from her. (has to do with estate taxes and portfolio diversification...)
My accountant says I have to file gift tax returns for these, eventhough they are not taxable, to document how we came to have them.
This seems silly to me, but that doesn't mean it isn't necessary. Whatcha think?
Obviously we could just liquidate them and reinvest to simulate a trade, but I expect the transaction fees will cost more than the tax returns.