I believe the spousal exemption permits an unlimited amount to be given to a spouse without estate/gift tax due.

What prevents a parent from marrying a child, giving the child $millions, and then divorcing? Before you say laws against incest ...

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and opinions of Australian judges don't hold much water her in the USA.

But, you could try and move to Arkansas and see how you fare there.

Let us know.

More than sufficient info on this if you care to read up.

Any other schemes you want to discuss?

therefore not only not have to ever pay US taxes again but have diplomatic immunity to do whatever I want?

I think it's in the Constitution that I can do that.

You haven't received your reparations yet?

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Wouldn't the laws preventing it be discriminatory under the same analysis?

I'm looking forward to seeing this end up in front of the Supreme's  

I suspect there may already be some case law out there on it.  Do some research.

Plenty of other methods on sheltering vast estates.  All depends on how aggressive one wants to be.  As well as the types of assets within an estate.

The spousal exemption is primarily in play after death - prior to death, there's no need to gift to a spouse. So the correct scenario would have to be 1) marry child, 2) die, 3) leave millions.  

Other than the obvious, there's a few flaws. The spouse would only get his/her exemption amount ($5.25 million or so), unless an election was made at the death of first-to-die spouse. Even then, only about $10-11 million would be shielded - amounts above that would be taxed. Plus, the left-out heirs would almost certainly challenge any will that purported to effect such a scheme. Finally, any non-cash property gifted prior to the giver's death transfers at the giving parties basis - no step-up, which becomes expensive later on.  

A trust is a much better vehicle for wealth transfer to children. There are trusts which qualify as legal transfers but incomplete gifts for tax purposes, thus giving the donor and/or the beneficiary the use of the property without recognizing taxable gain.

I've always thought that using gold coins would be a great way to transfer wealth within the USA while minimizing tax implications.  But I'm not an attorney, CPA, or tax professional.

A $20 face value gold coin (pre-1933) sells for about $1400 USD in Extra Fine or Better (XF+) condition due to being nearly an ounce of gold.  Taking advantage of the IRS exclusion of $14,000 per year tax free transfer, you could give someone 700 coins.  They'd declare the face value of $20(700)=$14,000 USD for the gift, despite receiving nearly $1400(700)=$9.8 million USD in value.  Can repeat that each year until you're out of cash, and it won't count against your lifetime exclusion.

Granted, you have to buy and the receiver sell the coins so it's not as portable as cash.  But can also take them across international borders without declarations if the face value is kept below $10k USD.

Does this option make sense?

Gold is gold, and it worth what it is worth. The face value of the coins is not relevant in the slightest.

If you care to try out your little theory, try bringing 100 ounces of gold on your next international flight, but don't blame me when they confiscate every penny of it, despite your claims that it's only two grand.

Had to search through the Customs & Border Protection site and the key phrase seems to be "valued over $10,000".  It's required to declare on gold coins, gold medals (Olympics), and bullion using "FinCen 105", but you won't have to pay duty when crossing US borders.

Since they specify gold coins, by omission that eliminates silver and any other coins from consideration.  So if you travel with an 1893 S Morgan Silver Dollar it doesn't have to be declared even though it's worth over $500M USD.  The reasoning is that it's highly unlikely money launderers or illicit activities will utilize collectible coins due to the smaller market, but precious metals such as gold have a distinct melt value and therefore a wider market.

Now then, I still don't know for sure about the original proposal of how the IRS view of gold coins gifted between individuals.

The federal estate tax exemption -- in addition to anything left to a spouse -- is now $5,340,000, and most states match that. If you have more than that, just pay the tax!

Not to mention  community property laws.