Gift Taxes

[10276]

My wife and I intend to give $100,000 to our son one time for buy a house.  

What is the best way for us to give this amount without having to ever file form 709?

[tagteam · Accepted solution]

The annual exclusion (for 2022) is $16,000 per donor to each donee.

That means you and your wife can give your son a total of $32,000 in 2022 without being required to file a 709. Anything above that figure, however, would require gift tax returns to be filed.

If you do not want to spread the gifts over several years, you could give your son $32,000 and take back a loan for the balance ($68,000) and then forgive $32,000 each of the following tax years. 

There are other strategies and you might want to seek an in-person consultation with an estate planning attorney.

https://www.avvo.com/estate-planning-lawyer.html

[VolvoGirl]

Is your son married?  You can each give each of them 16,000.  So that gets you up to 64,000.

[TomD8]

Are you aware that Form 709 is a strictly informational form that the IRS requires?  The lifetime gift tax exclusion - the amount you’re able to give away tax-free over the course of your lifetime above the annual gift tax exclusion - is currently $12.06 million ($24.12 million for married couples).

Form 709 is how the IRS keeps track of your lifetime gifts.

[Opus 17]

Don’t monkey around. There is a financial crime called “structuring“ which means structuring a transaction to avoid reporting requirements. You can be guilty of structuring even if the underlying transactions are technically legal.  Form 709 is a reporting requirement so that the IRS can track large gifts against your lifetime limit, but you won’t actually have to pay tax unless your lifetime gifts have already exceeded $12 million.  

[tagteam]

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@Opus 17 wrote:

Don’t monkey around. There is a financial crime called “structuring“ which means structuring a transaction to avoid reporting requirements. 

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See https://www.irs.gov/irm/part4/irm_04-026-013

You really need to stop throwing around terms that you do not fully understand.

Even a monkey would know that just because something is yellow does not mean it is a banana.