No it's not. The US gift tax is widely misunderstood.
In the US, any gifts over $5.49 million
over the course of your lifetime is taxed.
Any gift over $14k in a single year needs to be disclosed to the IRS, but it's not taxed. They're just keeping track of it in case you hit the $5.49 million lifetime cap, and they reduce the amount of your estate tax exemption by that amount.
It's all set up to stop people from avoiding the estate tax by gifting a lot of their wealth while alive.
Comments
No it's not. The US gift tax is widely misunderstood.
In the US, any gifts over $5.49 million over the course of your lifetime is taxed.
Any gift over $14k in a single year needs to be disclosed to the IRS, but it's not taxed. They're just keeping track of it in case you hit the $5.49 million lifetime cap, and they reduce the amount of your estate tax exemption by that amount.
It's all set up to stop people from avoiding the estate tax by gifting a lot of their wealth while alive.