Gift-Splitting by Married Couple 1. Gift splitting permits one spouse to pay greater amount of gift but gift is treated to annual exclusion of both spouses, not one who paid greater part of gift. 2. Gifts by both spouses to a third party are assess as made one-half by one spouse and one-half by the other spouse and called gift splitting 3. Both spouses must consent to split the gift | 4. The value of each spouse’s gift qualifies for the annual exclusion. 5. All gift splitting triggers a gift tax return, IRS Form 709, to show that each spouse agrees to use gift splitting even if half of the split gift is less than the annual exclusion. 6. Filing gift tax return does not mean a gift tax is payable on gift. |