I think I understand you can give 18K/yr and not tell anybody anything. You can give more, up to your 13 mil lifetime, you just have to tell the IRS. But it's the tax bit I don't understand (apologies if this is a thread hijack).
Let's say a person has 1 million in cash they want to give to another person. Fill out your form, write a check, and we're done.
However, let's say a person has 1 million in stock that they bought in 1970 for $10K. If they give the stock to the other person without paying tax and if the recipient wants cash to buy a house or whatever then they'll need to sell the stock and pay the capital gain tax....is that right? No way to get of the gains taxes?
Finally, if the old person dies and leaves the million in stock to the other person then they start with a cost basis on the day of death....they can sell that day and not pay ANY tax...is that right?
Thanks
Joe