Whether you're a single person or a couple, the permitted amount is $10,000 in cash and assets over one financial year or $30,000 in cash and assets over five financial years. This is commonly known as the $10k and $30k rule or a 'gifting free area'. Do I have to tell Centrelink?
Gifting free areas
$10,000 in one financial year. $30,000 over 5 financial years - this can't include more than $10,000 in a single financial year.
According to the Australian Taxation Office, monetary gifts from relatives and friends (even from overseas) do not count as assessable income and therefore don't have to be declared by the giver or receiver come tax time – regardless of the amount. There are a few caveats, however.
If you give a gift worth more than the annual exclusion, you need to file a gift tax return using IRS Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return. The person giving the gift is always responsible for the gift tax. (Though some states require recipients to pay inheritance tax.)
You can give up to the annual exclusion amount ($16,000 in 2022) to any number of people every year, without facing any gift taxes or filing a gift tax return. If you give more than $16,000 in 2022 to someone in one year, you do not automatically have to pay a gift tax on the overage.
You first use the annual exclusion to reduce the gift by $16,000 to $100,000. To avoid paying gift tax on the remaining $100,000, you can use an amount equal to the estate tax on $100,000 of your unified credit.
For example, if you give your brother $50,000 this year, you'll use up your $16,000 annual exclusion. The bad news is that you'll need to file a gift tax return, but the good news is that you probably won't pay a gift tax. Why? Because the extra $34,000 ($50,000 - $16,000) simply counts against your lifetime exclusion.
Current tax law permits anyone to give up to $15,000 per year to an individual without causing any federal income tax issues or reporting requirements. Let's say a parent gives a child $100,000. The parent would have no tax to pay on that gift nor would the child have any tax to pay upon receipt.
The IRS allows every taxpayer is gift up to $16,000 to an individual recipient in one year. There is no limit to the number of recipients you can give a gift to. There is also a lifetime exemption of $12.06 million.
Reporting Requirements
For gifts or bequests from a nonresident alien or foreign estate, you are required to report the receipt of such gifts or bequests only if the aggregate amount received from that nonresident alien or foreign estate exceeds $100,000 during the taxable year.
If you are receiving the Age Pension or other benefits from the government, there is a limit to the amount you can gift your children. Whether you're a single person or a couple, the permitted amount is $10,000 in cash and assets over one financial year or $30,000 in cash and assets over five financial years.
Do I pay tax if I gift someone money or an asset, like a house? If you gift money to a friend or family member there are no tax implications for you or the receiver. If you gift someone an asset like a house, we consider that transaction to be the same as you selling the house, and capital gains tax (CGT) will apply.
You don't have to declare the gifted amount on your tax return, but you may still need to have a letter or other written evidence from the person who sent you the money to prove that it is a gift that you have received.
To do this, you've got to use IRS Form 709 when filing your annual tax return. You need to complete and submit Form 709 for any year that you make a taxable gift. Sending in the form doesn't necessarily mean you'll have to pay anything on the gift—it's just the form you'll need to use to declare the gift.
There is no gift tax in Australia (how your children may be affected is dealt with below), but if you're receiving the age pension or any other social security benefit from Centrelink, there are limits to the value of gifts that you can give. If you exceed those limits, it could affect your social security benefit/s.
Technically speaking, you can give any amount of money you wish as a gift to one or more of your children or any other member of family. Some parents also choose to buy property and put it into their child's / children's name(s).
Your excess gift amount accumulates until it reaches the lifetime gift tax exclusion amount. As of tax year 2021, the lifetime exclusion is $11.7 million (increasing to $12.06 million for 2022). This lifetime exemption allows the gift giver to give more than the annual exclusion.
Annual Gift Exclusion
Like we've mentioned before, the annual exclusion limit (the cap on tax-free gifts) is a whopping $16,000 per person per year for 2022 (it's $17,000 for gifts made in 2023).
You most likely won't owe any gift taxes on a gift your parents make to you. Depending on the amount, your parents may need to file a gift tax return. If they give you or any other individual more than $32,000 in 2022 ($16,000 per parent), they will need to file some paperwork.
We're all entitled to our own individual $16,000 annual exclusion per gift recipient. This means that your mother and father could each give you $15,000 this year — for a total of $30,000 — without being taxed on that gift. This is referred to as “gift splitting.”
The recipient doesn't have to do anything. Depending on what the recipient does with the gift, there may be future tax implications, such as paying capital gains tax on an investment. But someone accepting money – even in excess of the annual exclusion amount – doesn't have to worry about reporting it to the IRS.
As of 2022, you can gift any individual up to $16,000 per year without owing any gift tax or even having to file a gift tax return — and gifts in excess of this won't be taxed until you hit the lifetime exclusion cap of $12,060,000 (although you will still need to file a gift tax return).
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.
The annual federal gift tax exclusion allows you to give away up to $16,000 each in 2022 to as many people as you wish without those gifts counting against your $12.06 million lifetime exemption. (After 2022, the $16,000 exclusion may be increased for inflation.)