conversation: User (thecw): "Every single day someone comes in here and asks about ridiculous monetary-gifting workarounds to avoid paying gift tax. Unless you come from a very wealthy family, gift tax is not something you are ever going to have to think about in your lifetime.\n\nYou can gift up to $14k per person per year without reporting anything. That means a married couple can gift a married couple $56k before any reporting is done.\n\nThe giver has to report all gifts above $14k per person per year. Report, not pay taxes on. That's done on IRS form 709.\n\nAbove $14k per person per year, you can give away $5.45M in your lifetime without incurring any sort of gift tax.\n\nOnly once you have given away $5.45M above the $14k per person per year does gift tax come in to play at all, and then gift tax is paid for by the giver, not the receiver.\n\nSo take that down payment from your parents, no one is going to tax anyone on it.\n\nThere are of course edge cases and scenarios, but odds are you'll be aware of those if you're gifting at the frequency or quantity where they apply. The moral of the story is that **if someone wants to give you a large amount of money, you as the recipient don't have to worry about anything**."
  Self: "Also don't forget that if a couple is married, they get to double their lifetime exclusion to ~10 million (don't have the exact number in front of me). \n\nSo even the family of a very successful surgeon who leaves behind a 5 million dollar home and a couple million in cash, still doesn't have to worry about gift or estate taxes. \n\nAnd then on top of that.... Even if you do have 10 million dollars (5 single) only the amount above that is taxed. \n\nSo if you have 6M you only pay taxes on 1M of it. \n\nBTW  - IF you DO plan on dying with more than 5/10M in your estate. Talk to an estate planner and they can help you avoid a tremendous amount of taxes, mainly by having you give it away before you die. \n\nBut don't wait till you are nearly dead. I believe anything done within 3 years of your death gets sucked back into the estate for tax purposes. \n\nThis is one reason children of really rich families are constantly getting money from their parents/grandparents. They are using those annual exclusions. \n\nSource - Wife is a gift/estate tax attorney whose clients are often in the "3 comma club" as Mark Cuban calls it. "
  drunken_man_whore (drunken_man_whore): "TIL I'm in the negative comma club. "
  