• The purpose of the annual exclusion is both to serve as an estate-planning mechanism (so that gifts made during the donor’s lifetime remain nontestamentary and nontaxable) and to eliminate the administrative inconvenience of taxing relatively small gifts. For an individual, the first $10,000 in gifts can be excluded; for married persons, the exclusion is $20,000 per donee for joint gifts, regardless of which spouse supplied the donated property. IRC (26 USCA) § 2503.
— Also termed annual gift-tax exclusion. [Cases: Internal Revenue 4206.10. C.J.S. Internal Revenue §§ 566–568.]