Code of Federal Regulations Title 26. Internal Revenue § 26.25.2521–1 Specific exemption

(a) In determining the amount of taxable gifts for the calendar quarter (calendar year with respect to gifts made before January 1, 1971) there may be deducted, if the donor was a resident or citizen of the United States at the time the gifts were made, a specific exemption of $30,000, less the sum of the amounts claimed and allowed as an exemption in prior calendar quarters or calendar years. The exemption, at the option of the donor, may be taken in the full amount of $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or calendar year, or be spread over a period of time in such amounts as the donor sees fit, but after the limit has been reached no further exemption is allowable. Except as otherwise provided in a tax convention between the United States and another country, a donor who was a nonresident not a citizen of the United States at the time the gift or gifts were made is not entitled to this exemption. For the definition of calendar quarter see § 25.2502–1(c)(1).

(b) No part of a donor's lifetime specific exemption of $30,000 may be deducted from the value of a gift attributable to his spouse where a husband and wife consent, under the provisions of section 2513, to have the gifts made during a calendar quarter or calendar year considered as made one-half by each of them. The “gift-splitting” provisions of section 2513 do not authorize the filing of a joint gift tax return nor permit a donor to claim any of his spouse's specific exemption. For example, if a husband has no specific exemption remaining available, but his wife does, and the husband makes a gift to which his wife consents under the provisions of section 2513, the specific exemption remaining available may be claimed only on the return of the wife with respect to one-half of the gift. The husband may not claim any specific exemption since he has none available.