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Wealth transfer - Real life application

This isn't related to an exam question, but was reading through the wealth transfer taxes section and was wondering what constitutes a wealth transfer in terms of taxation. Below are some hypothetical situations that certainly can be considered wealth transfers in varying degrees, starting with issues that I can't fathom would trigger taxes and increasing in potential liability going down the list. (all in terms of parent-child relationship)
*Receive a Christmas present
*Receive $100 for a birthday
*Receive $10,000 for a wedding
*Parents give child furniture, appliances, TVs, etc for new home and buy new ones for themselves
*Parents purchase new furniture, appliances, TVs, etc directly for child's new home
*Parents purchase a car with title in child's name
*Parents open savings, brokerage, etc account in grown child's name with say $100, $10,000, or $1 million of funds
*Parents give $100,000 cash to child
*Parents estate passes onto child
As far as the readings go, the last two are obvious in triggering the gift tax and inheritance tax, but what about the ones in between? Not trying to look for loopholes but this seems awfully subjective and I doubt if a parent writes a $10,000 check to their 50 year-old son they consider the tax implications, let alone know they exist. Disclaimer: all situations are hypothetical with respect to myself except #1, I wish my parents were that giving!

First off anyone is allowed to legally gift anyone else $13,000 without a gift tax being triggered and it doesn't go towards lifetime gifting exceptions....so anything below that amount is irrelevant. A mother & father could therefore legally gift $52K to a son and dauther inlaw for example (each person gives each $13K). It honestly comes down to whether it is a traceable transfer. Can the IRS trace what you did with $100,000 cash? Maybe. Could they trace a paper check? Most likely. Can they prove someone bought the furniture for you? doubtful, but if they wanted to be a pain. Change furniture to car and you'd have trouble as there is a long paper trail.

Remember anyone can give anyone $13,000 (current limit, but it goes up)....so who is to say a parent couldn't give their maximum amount to their child and then$13,000 to a good friend and low and behold that good friend decided out of the goodness in their heart to turn around and gift it to the same child.

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i have been tax audited before.
they pretty much ask you to prove the source of income. where do you get the money. if you cannot prove a proper source and properly paid tax, they will charge you penalty and interest. it is just like driving 80 on a 55 road. if u don't get caught, u don't get caught.

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Thanks Sponge- that answers my question. I'm aware tax law includes a lot of discretion and people may under-report intentionally or unintentionally, but as income has standard deductions to set reporting minimums, I didn't see any mention of a comparable guideline let alone the specific mention of $13,000 in Schweser.

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The $13,000 is a U.S. gift exemption, it's value typically is increased periodically for inflation. Each person has a maximum amount they are able to gift in a lifetime without being taxed, but this $13K per year does not subtract from that. A person could gift $100K and just fill out the form, which essentially is subtracted from their lifetime allowance. The $13K per year is a great estate planning technique for many families.

My explanation is not specific, but that is the basic idea.

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