Howdy silindro-ga,
A reminder of the "Important Disclaimer: Answers and comments provided on
Google Answers are general information, and are not intended to substitute
for informed professional medical, psychiatric, psychological, tax, legal,
investment, accounting, or other professional advice."
The simple answer is no, you will not have to pay taxes on the $13,000 gift,
because it is just that, a gift.
The person giving the $13,000 might have a tax liability for some of the
gift, but there are several ways for them to avoid that. Basically, anyone
can give anyone else up to $11,000 (the "annual exclusion") every year, with
no "gift tax" liability.
If it is a couple giving the money (Dad and Mom, etc.) then they can each
give up to $11,000 each, for up to $22,000 total. There are "gift splitting"
rules, etc. but more on that later.
In your case, if it was just one person (not Mom and Dad together) giving you
the $13,000, they, and not you, might have to pay gift tax on the amount of
the gift over the $11,000 annual exclusion, or $2,000.
Unless the person who gave you the gift gives lots of gifts over the $11,000
amount, chances are they will not owe gift tax on the $2,000 amount that is
over the annual exclusion, as there is a "unified credit" which essentially
gives a person a break from gift tax for a certain lifetime amount. The
current ammount is $345,800.
Even though in the above scenario there would be no gift tax to be paid by
the person giving the gift, they still would have to file a Form 709 with
their tax returns. If it is a "Mom and Dad" situation, they could both give
$6,500 each to you as a gift, and not have to file any extra forms, etc.
More information can be found on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) web site
within Publication 950, Introduction to Estate and Gift Taxes. That article
mentions the gift splitting situation as well.
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p950/ar02.html
If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.
Search strategy:
Searched the IRS web site for information on gift taxes.
http://www.irs.gov/
Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher |
