[mmcd]

Under the current estate and gift tax regime, you have and exclusion of 1.5 million. (It will increase to 2 million in '06,'07 and '08 and 3.5 million in '09) You will not have to pay any taxes on the 50k, but you still have to file. 28k will be deducted from your 1.5 million exclusion amount(You get an annual 11k per donee exemption).

You could get 44k to them w/o having any tax consequences at all by giving 11k each to both your mother and father on both Dec. 31 of this year and Jan. 1 of next year.