The Tax Law of Charitable Giving, 5th Edition

Chapter EightEstate and Gift Tax Considerations

1. § 8.1 Introduction
2. § 8.2 Federal Gift Tax
   1. (a) Definition of Gift
   2. (b) Imposition of Gift Tax in General
   3. (c) Scope of Covered Transfers and Property
   4. (d) Powers of Appointment
   5. (e) Transfers Deemed Not to Be Gifts
   6. (f) Taxable Gifts
   7. (g) Exclusions from Taxable Gift
   8. (h) Annual Exclusion
   9. (i) Valuation of Gift Transfers
   10. (j) Basis of Gifted Property
   11. (k) Gift Tax Deductions
   12. (l) Liability for Gift Tax
   13. (m) Split Gifts between Spouses
   14. (n) Disclaimers
3. § 8.3 Federal Estate Tax
   1. (a) Gross Estate
   2. (b) Taxable Estate
   3. (c) Time of Valuation of Gross Estate
   4. (d) Basis of Transferred Property
4. § 8.4 Unification of Taxes
5. § 8.5 Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax
6. § 8.6 Remainder Interests
   1. (a) In General
   2. (b) Will Contests
   3. (c) Reformations
7. § 8.7 Ascertainability

§ 8.1 Introduction

Federal estate and gift tax law came into existence in 1916, and has been a continuous and growing (and controversial) component of the federal tax scheme ever since. Unlike federal income tax law, federal estate and gift taxes are an excise tax on the transfer of property of individuals, either during their lives or upon their deaths.

The federal estate and gift tax is a unified transfer tax system comprising two elements: the first element is the gift tax; the second element is the estate tax. The tax is unified in that both gift and estate transfers are taxed as an integrated whole. They constitute a unified transfer tax system.

The federal estate tax is a tax on the value ...