[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 26, Volume 14]
[Revised as of April 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 26CFR25.2502-2]

[Page 526]
 
                       TITLE 26--INTERNAL REVENUE
 
    CHAPTER I--INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 
                               (CONTINUED)
 
PART 25_GIFT TAX; GIFTS MADE AFTER DECEMBER 31, 1954--Table of Contents
 
Sec.  25.2502-2  Donor primarily liable for tax.

    Section 2502(d) provides that the donor shall pay the tax. If the 
donor dies before the tax is paid the amount of the tax is a debt due 
the United States from the decedent's estate and his executor or 
administrator is responsible for its payment out of the estate. (See 
Sec.  25.6151-1 for the time and place for paying the tax.) If there is 
no duly qualified executor or administrator, the heirs, legatees, 
devisees, and distributees are liable for and required to pay the tax to 
the extent of the value of their inheritances, bequests, devises, or 
distributive shares of the donor's estate. If a husband and wife 
effectively signify consent, under section 2513, to have gifts made to a 
third party during any ``calendar period'' (as defined in Sec.  25.2502-
1(c)(1)) considered as made one-half by each, the liability with respect 
to the gift tax of each spouse for that calendar period is joint and 
several (see Sec.  25.2513-4). As to the personal liability of the 
donee, see paragraph (b) of Sec.  301.6324-1 of this chapter 
(Regulations on Procedure and Administration). As to the personal 
liability of the executor or administrator, see section 3467 of the 
Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 192), which reads as follows:

    Every executor, administrator, or assignee, or other person, who 
pays, in whole or in part, any debt due by the person or estate for whom 
or for which he acts before he satisfies and pays the debts due to the 
United States from such person or estate, shall become answerable in his 
own person and estate to the extent of such payments for the debts so 
due to the United States, or for so much thereof as may remain due and 
unpaid.


As used in such section 3467, the word ``debt'' includes a beneficiary's 
distributive share of an estate. Thus if an executor pays a debt due by 
the estate which is being administered by him or distributes any portion 
of the estate before there is paid all of the gift tax which he has a 
duty to pay, the executor is personally liable, to the extent of the 
payment or distribution, for so much of the gift tax as remains due and 
unpaid.

[T.D. 7238, 37 FR 28726, Dec. 29, 1972, as amended by T.D. 7910, 48 FR 
40373, Sept. 7, 1983]