Contributions to HSA Count Against $12k Gifting Limits?

Direct payments to the school or medical facility, for the benefit of others, are not subject to the gift tax limits.

You can pay a medical provider for medical expenses and those payments are not counted towards gift tax.

Similarly you can pay tuition expenses for higher education directly to the school and no gift tax here either.

-- ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

OK, thanks -- I had been looking for that and unable to find it. Do you or someone else know where I can find the applicable rules? Would direct payment for health insurance qualify similarly?

A second followup question--

Would those payments be reportable as income by the person on whose behalf the payments were made?

Yes.

See "Transfers Not Subject to the Gift Tax" on Page 2, here:

-- ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

Aassuming these are bona fide gifts, No.

-- ArtKamlet at a o l dot c o m Columbus OH K2PZH

Arthur Kamlet wrote: ...

OK, thanks...

I'm assuming that means no expectation of payback, etc., is all it takes to qualify them as bona fide...

Actually loans can be gifts to the extent the borrower doesn't pay reasonable interest. There were a series of cases several years ago involving a wealthy relative lending money without interest, with the proviso that repayment could be demanded at any time, and those loans were considered gifts of the interest or other income earned or that could have been earned on the gifts. Whether or not it's a gift has little or nothing to do with what the borrower does or thinks - it's about what the giver does and thinks. If it is given out of "disinterested generosity," it's a gift. Stu