The Internal Revenue Service has released the spring issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, which features data on high-income individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2007, gift tax returns filed in 2008 and trust income from the 2002 through 2006 period.
For example, here is an abstract from the section on 2007 Gifts:
There were a total of 257,485 gift tax returns filed in 2008. 247,932 returns, or 96.3 percent, were nontaxable. The remaining 9,553 (3.7 percent) were taxable. Female donors filed 51.8 percent of all gift tax returns, of which 4.2 percent were taxable. Male donors filed 48.2 percent of all returns, of which 3.1 percent were taxable.
The reported total amount of gifts was $45.2 billion. There were marital deductions claimed in the amount of $1.2 billion, and charitable deductions in the amount of $6.5 billion. The amount of total taxable gifts made in the current period, by all donors, was $28.1 billion. Cash was the predominant type of asset gifted, comprising $20.9 billion, or 46.2 percent, of the total. Gifts of corporate stock were the second largest type, comprising 23 percent, or $10.6 billion, of the total, while real estate was the third largest ($7.7 billion, or 17.0 percent).