Do I need to file form 709? Any tax do I need to pay or can lifetime exemption can cover it?

[peteryujun]

My status is as below 
1. I hold L1 working visa (my wife hols L2 visa), we stayed in US for almost whole year, none of us is a US citizen or permanent resident 
2. we hold an joint checking account 
3. we always file joint tax return 

I transferred (gift) some money to my farther and friends 2016 via the joint account, as below
1. wire transferred $18,000 to my farther oversea who is not an US tax payer 
2. transferred $10,000 to friend A (after he cam to US) who hold an H1 VISA and was came to US on Oct 2016, via online banking
3. transferred $20,000 to friend B (after she cam to US) who hold an L1 VISA and was came to US on Oct 2016, via online banking
4. transferred $5,000 to friend C who hold an L1 VISA and stay in US for almost whole year, via online banking

I did some search on google, looks like I have $28,000 exclusion for gifts for year 2016, so my question is 
1. Can these transfers/gifts consider as gifted by my wife and me together?

2. Do i need to file form 709 on 2017, each transaction not exceed $28,000 but total of them exceeds 

3. If I need to file 709, since I only hold an working VISA but not an citizen or green card holder, can I use life time exemption (looks lie $5.4 million, I never used it before) to avoid pay tax for those gifts?

[TaxGuyBill]

Because they came from a Joint account, I THINK you will be okay because the each give was under $28,000.

If the account was only in your name (or if the IRS considers it as a Gift from only one of you), then you would probably owe some significant Gift Taxes because your "domiciliary" is probably not in the US (you are only temporarily in the US).  The $5.4 million lifetime exemption would not apply.

[chambrlnp]

The short answer is that you should file a gift tax return (form 709), but you won't pay any gift tax or use any of your lifetime exemptions, because you and your wife can split the gifts 50-50, so that neither of you will have made a gift of more than $14,000 to any other individual.
Thus, each of you will be deemed to have given $9000 to your father, $5000 to A, $10,000 to B, and $2500 to C.  Since all these amount are under $14,000, there is no gift tax or use of the exemption.
I am assuming here that both of you were in the US during 2016 for 183 days or more, long enough to be residents for tax purposes under the substantial presence test, and that the gifts were made after you arrived in the US.
Review page 6 and following of the 2016 instructions for form 709 for the details of completing the form for gift splitting.  You should qualify to file only a single form 709, though you can file separate 709s if you want to.