Abraham Lincoln found himself at the head of a government that was divided amongst itself on how to proceed, given that the southern half of the country was teetering on the edge of secession.
I've noticed that employees don't contribute much when the envelope makes its rounds. I'd say their contributions average $3 per person, tops. I don't want to appear cheap to our boss presenting him with a departmental retirement gift of less than $200 (there is 60 people in the department). I want to ask the staff to increase their contribution to $30 per person, so we can give my boss an $1800 gift.
1 The annual gift tax exclusion amount is $14,000 for 2015. 2  In other words, you can give $14,000 or $14,000 worth of property to as many people as you want in a year's time, without needing to file a gift tax return in order to report the gift to the IRS. Any taxable money you gift an heir during your lifetime will count toward the estate that you leave them upon your death. 2  For example, if you give your child $200,000 each year for ten years for a total of ten years, and upon death leave them 5 million, your total gift will have a value of $7 million for tax purposes.