Wading in: In Conceivable (how appropriate!), quit digging. I’m a lawyer who has dealt with these issues and I still wouldn’t give advice over the boards.
I also happen to know that the rule that the donor is liable for the gift has been true at least since the estate and gift taxes were unified and rewritten in 1976. The concept was that economically, a gift is really a pre-payment of an estate, and since estate tax is paid by the estate itself, the gift tax is paid by the donor.
OOOOPS! I’m sorry, my post was directed at vunderbob, my apologies, In Conceivable!
That’s okay OxyMoron. I knew who you meant.
A major pet peeve of mine is people who think that just because they dealt with a vaguely similar tax or legal issue some time in the past means they are qualified to give advice now.
A message board can be a great place to go for general advice. However much of the general advice is going to be very very wrong (like vunderbob’s post). Go to a CPA for specific tax advice. Go to a lawyer for specific legal advice.
If you don’t know what you are talking about then don’t give any advice at all (again vunderbob). You don’t have expertise of any kind just because you were an executor once. Sorry.