Thanks for your reply James416.
I've resorted to accepting the addition of the spouses gifts for two reasons:
- Form 709, Part 4, Line 1 states Add Totals from column H of Parts 1, 2 and 3.
- A reply from a enrolled agent at one of the Big tax preparation services - Line 1 technically does not include the spouse's gifts, but your half of the spouse's gifts, since you are splitting.
One reason for each spouse filing a Form 709 is because of the required prior gifting history. It's very likely that each spouse has gifted differently.
Reference to your question on Total Annual Exclusion. It's not necessarily going to be 2x the annual exclusion. You may want to watch the video from MMtaxMM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdFPQq4XM4Q
