For the year 2018, you can make individual $15,000 gifts to as many people as you want. You just cannot gift any one recipient more than $15,000 within one year. If you’re married, you and your spouse can each gift up to $15,000 to any one recipient.
If you gift more than the exclusion to a recipient, you will need to file tax forms to disclose those gifts to the IRS. You may also have to pay taxes on it. If that’s the case, the tax rates range from 18% up to 40%. However, you won’t have to pay any taxes as long as you haven’t hit the lifetime gift tax exemption.
For the year the IRS allows you to gift up to $11.2 million over your lifetime without having to pay gift tax.
So let’s say that in 2018 you gift $210,000 to your daughter. This gift is $185,000 over the annual gift exclusion. That means you will need to report it to the IRS. However, you won’t immediately have to pay tax on that gift. Instead, the IRS deducts that $185,000 from your lifetime gift tax exemption. Assuming you have never made any other gifts over the annual exemption, your remaining lifetime exemption is now $11 million ($11.2 million minus $185,000).
