What’s the best way to give money to children without causing an increase in their taxes?

[xmasbaby0]

The children who receive the gift do not pay tax on the gift.

Gifts given to family members, friends or other individuals are not deductible.   Gifts received are not taxable to the person who received the gift, and are not entered on a tax return.

If your gift exceeds the yearly limit ($17,000 per individual)  imposed by the gift tax rules, then you will need to complete a Form 709 gift tax form and send it to the IRS, although it is very unlikely that you will owe any tax. 

TurboTax does not support Form 709.  It is not an income tax form and would not be included as part of an income tax return.

Here is a link to the form:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f709.pdf

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/estates/the-gift-tax-made-simple/L5tGWVC8N

[TaxandtheCurious · Accepted solution]

A federal tax called the gift tax is assessed on transfers of cash or property valued above a certain threshold. For you clarification, the gift tax is paid by the giver of money or assets, not the receiver. So, in response to your question, giving money to your children would not increase their tax. However, there are certain thresholds that you may want to be aware of as the giver.

The annual exclusion amount for gifting in 2023 is $17,000 ($34,000 per married couple). That means you could give up to $17,000 (or a married couple could give a total of $34,000) in annual exclusion gifts to any child, grandchild or other person without giver or receiver paying any tax, as long as the gift do not exceed thresholds. To give "cash" you can write a check, wire money, transfer between bank accounts, or even give actual cash. 

 Also, you can give up to the annual exclusion amount ($17,000 in 2023) to any number of people every year, without facing any gift taxes or filing a gift tax return. Even if you give more than $17,000 in 2023 to someone in one year, you do not automatically have to pay a gift tax on the overage, however, you will be required to file a gift tax return. You can give a total of up to $12.92 million in overages throughout your lifetime before you start owing the gift tax.

Here is a link with some additional information: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/estates/the-gift-tax/L1sFpFeXV 

[rjs]

If the children invest the money that you give them, any income that they earn from the investments, such as interest, dividends, or capital gains, will be taxable income to them. So in that sense, giving them money will indirectly increase their tax. But as others have stated, they do not pay any tax on the gift itself.