The Annual Gift Tax Exclusion, Explained

The 2024 annual exclusion: $18,000 per recipient

You can give up to $18,000 to any number of people in 2024 without filing a gift tax return or eroding your lifetime exemption. Married couples can give $36,000 per recipient.

What counts as a gift

• Cash, checks, wire transfers
• Stocks, bonds, real estate transfers
• Forgiven debts
• Below-market loans
• Paying someone's expenses (with exceptions below)

Three big exceptions that don't count as gifts

1. Tuition paid directly to an educational institution — unlimited
2. Medical bills paid directly to a provider — unlimited
3. Gifts to your US citizen spouse — unlimited (non-citizen spouse: $185,000 in 2024)

Gift splitting for couples

Even if only one spouse writes the check, both can be treated as making the gift — doubling the per-recipient exclusion to $36,000. Requires filing Form 709 and consenting via election, even if no tax is due.

When you must file Form 709

• Gifts to one person over $18,000 in the year
• Gift splitting election
• Gifts of future interests (e.g., to a trust)
• Gifts of community property

Filing doesn't mean you owe tax — usually it just records use of your lifetime exemption.

The lifetime exemption: $13.61 million (2024)

Gifts over the annual exclusion eat into your lifetime exemption rather than triggering tax. The exemption is unified across gift and estate taxes — what you use during life reduces what's available at death. Scheduled to drop roughly in half after 2025 unless Congress extends.