If during 2021 my mother transfers $100,000 to my brokerage account, will I pay Federal and/or state taxes on it?

[Kimberl762]

The transfer would be a Unified Tax Credit.

[rjs · Accepted solution]

It depends on why your mother transferred the money to your account. If it's a gift, you do not pay tax on it, and you don't even enter it in your tax return. However, your mother must file a gift tax return, Form 709, which applies the gift to her lifetime exclusion. She will not have to pay any gift tax unless she has exceeded the lifetime exclusion, but she has to file the return.

You do have to pay tax on any income that you earn on the money after it is in your account.

If the money is something other than an unrestricted gift, post more details.

[ColeenD3]

No, the recipient of a gift does not pay the tax. Your mother will file a Form 709 to report the gift. 

Form 709

709 Instructions

[Kimberl762]

What if it is a Unified Tax credit?

[ColeenD3]

 A unified tax credit is a certain amount of assets that each person is allowed to gift to other parties without having to pay gift, estate, or generation-skipping transfer taxes. 

She is still required to file Form 709 to report what she gifted, so it can be applied against the Unified Credit. Every gift given must be applied. In the event gifts exceed this amount, they begin to be taxed. Gifts given during life are subtracted as they are given.

The basic exclusion amount for determining the unified credit against the estate tax will be $11,580,000 for decedents dying in calendar year 2020.

[rjs]

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@Kimberl762 wrote:

What if it is a Unified Tax credit?

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"Unified credit," "lifetime exclusion," and "basic exclusion" are all just different words for the same thing.