Are you planning on making any cash year end gifts? If so and you making the gift by check; make sure that the donee deposits it in 2012. You want the money to count as a 2012 gift for gift tax purposes. So make it clear to whomever you are making the gift; this keeps everything much cleaner if questioned by Uncle.
If you deliver a certified check to the recipient this year; this would count as a 2012 gift, even if the donee does not deposit the check into his or her account until next year.
Reminder: if you don’t use up the full $13,000-per-donee exclusion this year, you lose the shortfall forever. You can not give a donee extra next year to make up for it.
If your preference is gifting securities, endorse them over to the donee and deliver them by year-end if you want the gift to count for 2012. If you send them to the corporation late in the year to be retitled, the process might not be completed by Dec. 31. They retain your original basis. The gift does not receive a step up in basis.