A technique used to avoid a gift tax in which a large sum of money to be given by two parents to a child is halved and given to the child separately For example, a husband and wife each donate $10,000 to their child rather than one parent donating $20,000.

A provision allowing a married couple to treat a gift made by one of them to a third party as having been made one-half by each (with a gift tax return showing the other spouse's consent), generally for purposes of the “annual gift tax exclusion.

The provision in the gift tax law that allows married individuals to assume that a gift by one spouse was given half by each spouse. This helps larger gifts qualify under the annual gift tax exclusion.