A client who provides her adult son with cash payments well in excess of the annual exclusion insists my advice to her regarding the nature of this transfer, a reportable gift, is incorrect. Her response is along the lines of "my son is a bum who can't hold down a job, and I have to support my child. If he was mentally retarded and lived in a group home and I had to pay the rent there and all the associated costs, that wouldn't be considered a gift, would it? So why is it a gift when I give money to my idiot son?"
Notwithstanding their relationship needs counseling, are there some provisions in the gift tax law I'm missing whereby parental support for a severally handicapped child (which isn't her situation anyway) is not considered a gift for gift tax purposes?