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The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.
2. Determine what gifts you must report.
3. Decide whether you and your spouse, if any, will elect to
split gifts for the year.
4. Complete lines 1 through 19 of Part 1—General Information.
5. List each gift on Part 1, 2, or 3 of Schedule A, as
appropriate.
6. Complete Schedules B, C, and D, as applicable.
7. If the gift was listed on Part 2 or 3 of Schedule A, complete
the necessary portions of Schedule D.
8. Complete Schedule A, Part 4.
9. Complete Part 2—Tax Computation.
10.
Sign and date the return.
Make sure to complete page 1 and the applicable
schedules in their entirety. Returns filed without entries in
each field will not be processed.
Remember, if you are splitting gifts, your spouse must
sign line 18 in Part 1—General Information.
Who Must File
In general. If you are a citizen or resident of the United States,
you must file a gift tax return (whether or not any tax is ultimately
due) in the following situations.
•
If you gave gifts to someone in 2023 totaling more than
$17,000 (other than to your spouse), you probably must file
Form 709. But see Transfers Not Subject to the Gift Tax and
Gifts to Your Spouse, later, for more information on specific
gifts that are not taxable.
•
Certain gifts, called future interests, are not subject to the
$17,000 annual exclusion and you must file Form 709 even if
the gift was under $17,000. See Annual Exclusion, later.
•
Spouses may not file a joint gift tax return. Each individual is
responsible to file a Form 709.
•
You must file a gift tax return to split gifts with your spouse
(regardless of their amount) as described in Part 1—General
Information, later.
•
If a gift is of community property, it is considered made
one-half by each spouse. For example, a gift of $100,000 of
community property is considered a gift of $50,000 made by
each spouse, and each spouse must file a gift tax return.
•
Likewise, each spouse must file a gift tax return if they have
made a gift of property held by them as joint tenants or
tenants by the entirety.
•
Only individuals are required to file gift tax returns. If a trust,
estate, partnership, or corporation makes a gift, the
individual beneficiaries, partners, or stockholders are
considered donors and may be liable for the gift and GST
taxes.
•
The donor is responsible for paying the gift tax. However, if
the donor does not pay the tax, the person receiving the gift
may have to pay the tax.
•
If a donor dies before filing a return, the donor's executor
must file the return.
Who does not need to file. If you meet all of the following
requirements, you are not required to file Form 709.
•
You made no gifts during the year to your spouse.
•
You did not give more than $17,000 to any one donee.
•
All the gifts you made were of present interests.
Gifts to charities. If the only gifts you made during the year are
deductible as gifts to charities, you do not need to file a return as
long as you transferred your entire interest in the property to
qualifying charities. If you transferred only a partial interest, or
transferred part of your interest to someone other than a charity,
you must still file a return and report all of your gifts to charities.
Note. See Pub. 526, Charitable Contributions, for more
information on identifying a qualified charity.
If you are required to file a return to report noncharitable gifts
and you made gifts to charities, you must include all of your gifts
to charities on the return.
Transfers Subject to the Gift Tax
Generally, the federal gift tax applies to any transfer by gift of real
or personal property, whether tangible or intangible, that you
made directly or indirectly, in trust, or by any other means.
The gift tax applies not only to the free transfer of any kind of
property, but also to sales or exchanges, not made in the
ordinary course of business, where value of the money (or
property) received is less than the value of what is sold or
exchanged. The gift tax is in addition to any other tax, such as
federal income tax, paid or due on the transfer.
The exercise or release of a general power of appointment
may be a gift by the individual possessing the power. General
powers of appointment are those in which the holders of the
power can appoint the property under the power to themselves,
their creditors, their estates, or the creditors of their estates. To
qualify as a power of appointment, it must be created by
someone other than the holder of the power.
The gift tax may also apply to forgiving a debt, to making an
interest-free or below-market interest rate loan, to transferring
the benefits of an insurance policy, to certain property
settlements in divorce cases, and to giving up some amount of
annuity in exchange for the creation of a survivor annuity.
Bonds that are exempt from federal income taxes are not
exempt from federal gift taxes.
Sections 2701 and 2702 provide rules for determining
whether certain transfers to a family member of interests in
corporations, partnerships, and trusts are gifts. The rules of
section 2704 determine whether the lapse of any voting or
liquidation right is a gift.
Digital assets. The gift tax applies to transfers of digital assets.
Digital assets are any digital representations of value that are
recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger or
any similar technology. For example, digital assets include
non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual currencies, such as
cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. If a particular asset has the
characteristics of a digital asset, it will be treated as a digital
asset for federal transfer tax purposes.
Gifts to your spouse. You must file a gift tax return if you made
any gift to your spouse of a terminable interest that does not
meet the exception described in
Life estate with power of
appointment, later, or if your spouse is not a U.S. citizen and the
total gifts you made to your spouse during the year exceed
$175,000.
You must also file a gift tax return to make the qualified
terminable interest property (QTIP) election described under
Line 12. Election Out of QTIP Treatment of Annuities, later.
Except as described earlier, you do not have to file a gift tax
return to report gifts to your spouse regardless of the amount of
these gifts and regardless of whether the gifts are present or
future interests.
Transfers Not Subject to the Gift Tax
Four types of transfers are not subject to the gift tax. These are:
•
Transfers to political organizations,
•
Transfers to certain exempt organizations,
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Instructions for Form 709 (2023)