If a married couple makes a gift to a third party, the gift can be considered as made one-half by each person. This is known as gift splitting. Both spouses must agree to split the gift. Gift splitting allows a married couple to give up to $22,000 to a person annually ($24,000 in 2006) without making a taxable gift. If a gift is split, the couple should file a gift tax return proving the agreement to split the gift existed. This is true even where half of the split gift is less than $11,000 or $12,000 (depending upon the year given).
