Who Must File
In general. If you are a citizen or resident of the United States,
you must file a gift tax return (whether or not any tax is ultimately
due) in the following situations.
• If you gave gifts to someone in 2025 totaling more than
$19,000 (other than to your spouse), you must generally file
Form 709. But see
Transfers Not Subject to the Gift Tax and
Gifts to Your Spouse, later, for more information on specific
gifts that are not taxable.
• Certain gifts, called future interests, are not subject to the
$19,000 annual exclusion and you must file Form 709 even if
the gift was under $19,000. See
Annual Exclusion, later.
• Spouses may not file a joint gift tax return. Each individual is
responsible to file a Form 709.
• You must file a gift tax return to split gifts with your spouse
(regardless of their amount) as described in
Part III Spouse’s
Consent on Gifts to Third Parties, later.
• If a gift is of community property, it is considered made
one-half by each spouse. For example, a gift of $100,000 of
community property is considered a gift of $50,000 made by
each spouse, and each spouse must file a gift tax return.
• Likewise, each spouse must file a gift tax return if they have
made a gift of property held by them as joint tenants or
tenants by the entirety.
• Only individuals are required to file gift tax returns. If a trust,
estate, partnership, or corporation makes a gift, the
individual beneficiaries, partners, or stockholders are
considered donors and may be liable for the gift and GST
taxes.
• The donor is responsible for paying the gift tax. However, if
the donor does not pay the tax, the person receiving the gift
may have to pay the tax.
• If a donor dies before filing a return, the donor’s executor
must file the return.
Who does not need to file. If you meet all of the following
requirements, you are not required to file Form 709.
• You made no gifts during the year to your spouse.
• You did not give more than $19,000 to any one donee.
• All the gifts you made were of present interests.
Gifts to charities. If the only gifts you made during the year are
deductible as gifts to charities, you do not need to file a return as
long as you transferred your entire interest in the property to
qualifying charities. If you transferred only a partial interest, or
transferred part of your interest to someone other than a charity,
you must still file a return and report all of your gifts to charities
Transfers Not Subject to the Gift Tax
Four types of transfers are not subject to the gift tax. These are:
• Transfers to political organizations,
• Transfers to certain exempt organizations,
• Payments that qualify for the educational exclusion, and
• Payments that qualify for the medical exclusion.
