taxes on multiple gifts

First of all, you are talking about gift tax, not income tax. Second, I believe the amount of the annual gift tax exclusion is $12,000 this year. If total gifts for the year are $12,000 or more, you need to file a gift tax return. That doesn't necessariliy mean that you pay any gift tax. You do reduce your estate tax exclusion by the amount of taxable gifts. ___________________________________

-----> real address on hobokeni or hobokenx

The number is $12000. And you may give any number of people that amount with no tax consequences. Likewise, you may receive this amount from any number of people. (If a gift is over $12000, it's the giver who would have a tax issue, not the recipient) JOE

wrote

Well, you understand wrong. You can receive any amount of gift without having to report it as income - for cash gifts, it'll never ~be~ income to you. Different rules apply when you receive tangible gifts, like of stock, collectibles, etc.

See above.

-- Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens, Georgia

Any number of people may give you gifts, far in excess of $12,000, and you would not be reporting those gifts on YOUR tax return. Gifts, if they ever become taxable, are subject to tax on the giver. Those who exceed the annual amount allowable for making gifts must file a gift tax return.

The *receiver* of a gift never claims it, as income or otherwise. Bill Gates could give me $10,000,000,000 and I wouldn't have to report it or pay a penny of tax on it. It is the *giver* that has to report the gifts.

The giver has to report the amount in excess of *$12,000* given to any individual in a calendar year. In other words, the giver could give $11,000 each to five hundred different people in a year and not have to report anything. Likewise, if he gave $30,000 to one person, he'd have to report an $18,000 taxable gift. If he gave $20,000 to one person and $15,000 to another, he'd have to report $8,000 + $3,000 $11,000 of taxable gifts. The $12,000 per recipient per year exemption only applies to gifts of a present interest. Gifts of a future interest are reportable no matter how small they are.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@animato.info

The limit is now $12,000 per doner per donee. There is no tax by the donee regardless of the size of the gift. The donor has to file a gift tax rturn if he gifts more than $12,000/d/d but there is no actual tax unless the large gifts are deducted from his estate tax exemption and his total estate exceeds the exemption mount when he dies. ed

The recipient doesn't pay gift taxes. Some donors do.

The limit is per person, independent of what anyone else gives. Seth

You are confusing gift taxes and income taxes.

Gifts of any amount are not income to the recipient. So it doesn't matter how much you receive in a year nor from whom you receive it. You don't report the amounts received by you as gifts on your income tax return and you don't pay income taxes on the gifts. There is a gift tax, which is the responsibility of the person making the gift, not the person receiving the gift. Each person may make gifts of up to $12,000 (increased from $11,000) to as many different people as he or she wants each year. There is no requirement that the recipient of the gift is related to the donor nor is there any limit on the number of these gifts. (There are some technical exceptions to all this, but they aren't relevant to your question.) If the donor makes a gift of more than $12,000 (which actually can increase to $24,000 if the donor is married) the donor must report the gifts in excess of $12,000/$24,000 to the IRS but does not have to pay any gift taxes until the total amount of such excess gifts exceeds $1 million per donor. Hope this helps.

The recipient of the gift does not report it as it is not taxable income no matter how large the gift. Gift tax is paid by the person who gives the gift, should the gift be larger than 12,000 (not 11,000) in a single year. Ira Smilovitz