Wow! Thanks for the great replies (and your condolences, TTChrstinaS.) I had been thinking along these lines as an alternative, so have not distributed my brothers' entire shares yet. I did run this by a tax attorney at rocketlawyer. While he said he thought it would fly, I've been feeling unsettled about it and now I know why - he didn't site any provision of the tax code, so I wasn't at all convinced and have been feeling nervous about it. Now I get to decide whether to seek out a different tax attorney, or just gift the money and withhold the taxes. All of these replies are very helpful. Thank you again.
