Annual Exclusion

Every person is permitted to give away up to $10,000 per year to any other person without incurring any gift tax. There is no limit on the number of people you can make these gifts to in a year. To qualify for this exclusion, the gifts must be a gift of a present interest, meaning that the recipient can enjoy the gift immediately. This can present problems when you make gifts to trusts. This exclusion can be doubled to $20,000 per person, per year, if you’re married and your spouse consents to join in making the gift. This is called gift splitting. These amounts are indexed for inflation.