@asarbuckle wrote:
1) My wife and I are helping my son pay for his divorce. I know a gift for 2023 is $17,000 for an individual and $34,000 for a married couple. Since my wife and I are paying for his expenses out of our checking and savings accounts ( I wrote the checks) is it considered an individual gift or a married couple gift of $34,000 for tax purposes?
There is no such thing as a "married couple gift." A gift is always from one person to one other person. If you wrote all the checks, the total amount would probably be considered gifts from you.
A Form 709 gift tax return is filed by one person, for the gifts that that person gave. If one person made gifts of more than $17,000 (for 2023) he or she must file a gift tax return. There is no joint gift tax return.
On your Form 709 gift tax return you can indicate that you and your wife choose to split all your gifts for the year equally between the two of you. If you make that choice, your wife has to sign the Consent of Spouse on your gift tax return. For details see the IRS instructions for Form 709 lines 12 - 18. The choice to split the gifts applies to all gifts that you made during the year, to anyone.
You might want to consult a local tax professional for help with filing the gift tax return and splitting the gifts.
@asarbuckle wrote:
2) If I spot my son money (under $2,000) for a couple of days and he pays me back 2 days later is that taxable?
No. Just ignore it.
