I want to be sure I am not reading something incorrectly because I can't find where it has been covered in my gift tax seminars (admittedly few), and when I mention it, others look at me with a strange look.
The instructions to Form 709 state that "If you are required to file a return to report noncharitable gifts and you made gifts to charities, you must include all of your gifts to charities on the return." Would these include gifts to charities less than the $15000 exclusion amount? I read this as yes, but then it would be offset by the exclusion amount up to the gift or exclusion, whichever is less.
Most of the examples in resource material use gifts to a church totaling more than the $15000 exclusion (usually $25000). But I'm wondering if Mary Sue, who has to file a gift tax return for that $30,000 BMW she gave her daughter, must also list her $7,500 total contributions to the church.
But I'm also wondering why it even needs to listed at all since if it is over the exclusion, I can deduct the excess over the exclusion on Line 7, part 4, which basically takes me back to the same point I would be in if I didn't list it at all. I know it is Code, but not sure I get the gist of it. Of course, it's not the first time I've had trouble thinking IRS law all the way through.