Gift Tax Question

[swagger]

If I give a $100,000 gift to someone in 2022 but a week later in the same year (2022), the same person gives me that $100,000 back as a gift, do we both have to file a gift tax return or do these cancel out like nothing happened?

[Anonymous_]

Rationally, they should cancel each other out but, technically, they are each completed gifts (unless there was an understanding that the first transfer was not intended to be irrevocable or otherwise a true gift).

[MinhT1]

If you consider the transactions as gifts, then each person will have to file a gift tax return for tax year 2022 as the amount of the gift exceeds the gift tax exclusion of $16,000 for tax year 2022. The wo gifts do not cancel each other out.

However, if you consider that Individual A made a private loan of $100,000 to Individual B, then a week later Individual B repays the loan to Individual A, then there is nothing to report (if there is no interest paid/received).