James A$.$ and Ella R$.$ Polk, ages $70$ and $65,$ respectively, are retired physicians who

live at $3319$ Taylorcrest Street, Houston, Texas $77079.$ Their three adult children

$($Benjamin Polk, Michael Polk, and Otivia Turner$)$ are mature and responsible

professionals.

The Polks have heard that some in Congress have proposed lowering the Federal

gift tax exclusion to $$3,000,000.$ Although this change likely will not occur, the Polks

believe that they should take advantage of the more generous exclusion amount

available under existing law. Thus, the Polks make gifts during the current year, as

summarized below.

Prepare $2022$ gift tax returns $($Form $709)$ for both of the Polks to compute the total

taxable gifts $($line $3)$ for James and Ella; stop with line $3$ of page $1,$ but complete

pages $2$ and $3$ of the return.

An election to split gifts is made. The Polks made no taxable gifts in prior years. Ret$-$

evant Social Security numbers are $123-45-6789($James$)$ and $123-45-6788($Ella$).$