I have never filed a 709 for either of my two, now adult, children. Using the maximum amount for a gift from me and my wife, we should have filed a 709, for at least years 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023 for one child and for the other child, 2022 only. And we have been giving gifts, all less than the maximum allowed for all other years 2012-2023. It seems like we still need to report every year, so that the lifetime total per child can be accurately tracked to prove it never exceeded the amount for which taxes must be paid - now over $12 million. We will never even come close to that. So what is best advised? It seems like we should be able to safely ignore and, only if we ever reached that lifetime limit (literally impossible) we would then have to back file. We have all the records, but don't see the point in filing a 709 unless there's some requirement we don't understand. Thanks for any advice. I have been using TurboTax since the '80s.
