@Anonymous I ***get*** that....I'm saying something different which is that the IRS treats JT differently than state law.
Per state law, each joint tenant owns an ***equal*** undivided interest in the property.....if there are 2 JTs each owns an undivided 1/2 interest....if there are 4 JTs each owns an undivided 1/4 interest.....that's NOT arguable.
Point is the IRS looks at how much each JT contributed and that's contrary to state law where it makes no difference....one JT could contribute $90,000 while the other contributes $10,000 and the state still treats them as owning an undivided 1/2 interest....if either JT sued for partition and the court ordered a sale each would get 1/2 of the sales proceeds and it doesn't matter that one contributed more absent fraud or something like that.
If the IRS treated JT like the states, then if there were 2 JTs where one contributed more than 50% the excess above 50% would be treated as a gift to the other JT.
