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Identifying and Repairing Form 709 Gift Tax and GST Return Reporting Errors

Filing Corrective Returns, Reporting Prior Years' Unreported Gifts, Fixing GST Allocations, and More

Note: CLE credit is not offered on this program

Recording of a 110-minute CPE webinar with Q&A

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Conducted on Friday, May 23, 2025

Recorded event now available

or call 1-800-926-7926

This course will provide tax advisers and compliance professionals with a practical guide to identifying and remedying gift tax reporting errors on IRS Form 709. The panel will discuss common and complex gift tax mistakes, including incorrect reporting of gift splitting and incorrect GST allocations, as well as detail amended and subsequent year filings.

Description

Tax advisers and estate planners frequently encounter clients that have made a reportable gift but have failed to file an accurate Form 709 Gift Tax Return. In some scenarios, gift tax return errors have critical and far-reaching effects for the taxpayer and the taxpayer's family. Tax advisers must identify and fix the most common gift reporting errors.

The most common error in gift tax reporting involves taxpayers making reportable gifts but failing to file a Form 709 to disclose the transaction. In most cases, taxpayers are not aware of the requirement to file, particularly if the gift is to a spouse but subject to reporting requirements, such as a gift of a terminable interest or a future interest.

Additional and more complex issues arise when a taxpayer has made a "split gift" that fails to account for the spouse's share of the gift tax exemption, or where the originally filed Form 709 incorrectly allocated the generation-skipping tax exemption. Additionally, powers of appointment commonly found in estate and trust documents can present complicated gift tax reporting issues, depending on how those powers are structured and/or exercised.

Tax advisers and estate planners must identify errors in previous gift tax reporting and advise clients on remedying prior years' gift tax reporting errors to avoid tax issues in subsequent years.

Listen as our experienced panel discusses identifying gift tax reporting errors, and the remedies to those errors, including correcting GST exemptions and amending Form 709.

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Outline

  1. What transactions must be reported on a Form 709 Gift Tax Return
  2. GST exemption allocations on a Form 709 Gift Tax Return
  3. Identifying circumstances where taxpayers failed to file a required gift tax return
  4. Fixing incorrectly reported split gifts
  5. Repairing incorrect GST exemption allocations on gift tax and GST returns

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other important topics:

  • Identifying circumstances where a client failed to file a required Form 709 Gift Tax Return
  • Failure to accurately account for a split gift
  • Errors in GST exemption allocation
  • Impact of powers of appointment on gift tax returns

Faculty

Hatten, Daniel
Daniel Hatten

Partner
McDermott Will & Emery

Mr. Hatten focuses his practice on private client matters, advising clients on a range of estate and wealth planning...  |  Read More

Maczko, Vanessa
Vanessa L. Maczko

Partner
Wiggin and Dana

Ms. Maczko is a Partner in Wiggin and Dana’s Private Client Services Department in the Greenwich, CT office. She...  |  Read More

Robbins, Caroline
Caroline Q. (Cary) Robbins

Partner
Proskauer Rose

Ms. Robbins is a partner in the Private Client Services Department. She provides sophisticated estate and tax planning...  |  Read More

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