Terms of Use 

In 2025, you can give up to $19,000 in gifts to individuals in a year without triggering the gift tax.  You can give away up to that limit to as many individuals as you’d like.

You can make a gift of cash or other property to any individual each calendar year. 

If you give more than $19,000 in cash or assets like stocks, land, cars, etc. in a year to any one individual, you need to file a gift tax return. This doesn't mean you have to pay a gift tax, only that you have to report the gift to the IRS via Form 709.

Generally, the following gifts are not taxable gifts:

  • Gifts that are not more than the annual exclusion for the calendar year
  • Tuition or medical expenses you pay for someone (the educational and medical exclusions)
  • Gifts to your spouse
  • Gifts to a political organization for its use
  • Gifts to qualified charities (a deduction is available for these amounts)

Importantly, the annual exclusion is per individual recipient and not the sum total of all of your gifts. 

If you are married, both you and your spouse can separately give up to the annual exclusion (even to the same person) without making a taxable gift. This is not the combined total they can gift; it is the individual gift total.  So a couple could both make $19,000 gifts to each of their four grandchildren, for a total of $152,000.

In addition to the annual exclusion, there is a lifetime gift tax exclusion.  In 2025, the lifetime exclusion is $13.99 million which means that over your lifetime, you can gift up to this amount without paying any gift tax. The annual exclusion gifts don’t count towards the lifetime gift exemption.

If you gift more than the annual gift tax exemption it will count toward the lifetime limit.  

You can gift to your spouse and have it exempt from gift tax as long as both spouses are U.S. citizens.  

You can gift to educational institutions for tuition or to medical providers for medical expenses and it's not subject to gift tax regardless of the amount.  

If you exceed both the annual exclusion and your lifetime exemption, the gift tax rate ranges from 18-40%.  

The person receiving the gift generally doesn’t need to report the gift to the IRS either.

For more info, refer to the FAQs about Estate and Gift Taxes on the IRS website.

 

Source: IRS.gov