Annual Gift Tax Exclusion 2026: $19,000 per Recipient

The 2026 annual exclusion

The annual exclusion for gifts made in 2026 is $19,000 per recipient, set by IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32. It is unchanged from 2025. How it works:

• Per giver, per recipient. You can give $19,000 to your daughter, $19,000 to her husband and $19,000 to each grandchild. There is no limit on the number of recipients.
• Per calendar year. The exclusion resets every January 1. Unused exclusion does not carry over, so a gift you meant for 2026 has to be completed by December 31.
• Present interests only. The recipient must be able to use the gift now. Cash, a check, shares transferred into their account and a car all qualify. A gift to most trusts, where the beneficiary's use starts later, is a future interest: it does not qualify, and it needs a Form 709 even if it is small.
• Any kind of property. A gift of property counts at its fair market value on the day of the gift. Forgiving a loan, or selling something to a relative for less than it is worth, can also be a gift.

The exclusion is separate from the lifetime exemption covered in our federal estate tax guide. The annual exclusion is a yearly allowance that never touches the lifetime amount.

Married couples and gift splitting

Each spouse has their own $19,000 exclusion, so a couple can give $38,000 to each recipient. If the money comes from joint funds, each spouse is simply giving half. If it comes from one spouse alone, the couple can elect gift splitting: both agree to treat every gift either of them made to third parties that year as made half by each.

Gift splitting has conditions:

• You were married to each other when the gift was made.
• If you divorced or were widowed after the gift, you did not remarry during the rest of that year.
• Neither of you was a nonresident who is not a U.S. citizen at the time of the gift.
• Both spouses consent, and the election covers all gifts to third parties for the year.

Splitting always requires a Form 709, whatever the amount; spouses cannot file a joint gift tax return. Generally each spouse files their own 709, though in limited cases (for example, when the split gifts to each recipient total no more than $38,000 and all are present interests) only the spouse who made the gifts files, and the other signs a consent.

What counts toward the exclusion, and what does not

Some transfers are not gifts for tax purposes at all, or are excluded without any limit. They do not use up the $19,000 for that person:

• Tuition paid directly to the school. No limit, for anyone, related or not. Books, supplies, and room and board do not qualify.
• Medical costs paid directly to the provider, including health insurance premiums. No limit, but not for expenses the recipient's insurance reimburses.
• Gifts to a spouse who is a U.S. citizen. Fully deductible, with no Form 709 needed for ordinary outright gifts.
• Gifts to a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen. A higher annual exclusion of $194,000 in 2026, for gifts that would qualify for the marital deduction if the spouse were a citizen.
• Gifts to qualifying charities, which are deductible, and transfers to political organizations, which are not subject to gift tax.

529 plans are different: contributions are gifts and use the annual exclusion, because the tuition exclusion does not apply to them. You can elect on Form 709 to spread a large contribution over five years, up to five times the annual exclusion ($95,000 at the 2026 amount).

The recipient never pays gift tax and does not report a gift as income. But they take over the giver's cost basis in gifted property. Inherited property generally gets a basis equal to its value at death, which is one reason families sometimes keep appreciated assets until death rather than giving them away.

When you must file Form 709, and when it is due

You (the giver, not the recipient) must file Form 709 for 2026 if any of these is true:

• You gave more than $19,000 in total during the year to any one person, other than your spouse.
• You gave anyone a gift of a future interest, such as a gift into most trusts, of any amount.
• You and your spouse are electing to split gifts.
• You gave a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen more than $194,000, or gave a citizen spouse an interest that ends at a later date (for example, a life interest in a trust, where a QTIP election is made on Form 709).
• You are electing the five-year spread for a 529 plan contribution.

Form 709 is due April 15 of the year after the gift, which makes it April 15, 2027 for 2026 gifts. Form 8892 gives an automatic 6-month extension to file. An income tax extension on Form 4868 also extends the gift tax return. Neither extends the time to pay any gift tax. The IRS accepts Form 709 by e-file as well as on paper. Each giver files their own return.

Going over the exclusion uses lifetime exemption, not tax

This is the part most people get wrong. Giving more than $19,000 to someone does not create a tax bill in most cases. Federal gift and estate tax share one lifetime exemption, the basic exclusion amount, which is $15 million in 2026. Gift tax is figured on all your taxable gifts since 1976 added together, and a credit equal to the tax on that exemption is subtracted. Nothing is due until your lifetime taxable gifts pass the exemption.

Above the exemption, gifts are taxed at the same rates as estates, up to 40%. The donor pays it. See our Form 706 guide for how lifetime gifts are counted at death.

Annual exclusion by year

The exclusion is indexed for inflation but rises only in $1,000 steps, which is why it sometimes stays flat from one year to the next, as it did from 2025 to 2026.

Source: IRS, What's new: Estate and gift tax

Executors may need these older figures: a gift the person made in 2021 used the exclusion for 2021, not today's amount.

What 2027 looks like

As of October 17, 2026, the IRS has not published the 2027 annual exclusion. It sets the figure each fall in a revenue procedure; the 2026 amounts came out on October 9, 2025. The 2027 release is expected late October to November 2026.

Published forecasts, including Bloomberg Tax's, project about $20,000 for 2027. Treat that as an estimate until the IRS confirms it. Until then, the safe plan is to stay at $19,000 per recipient for gifts made in 2026, and to wait for the official figure before making a larger annual-exclusion gift in 2027. The lifetime exemption will also be adjusted for inflation for the first time for 2027; see our federal estate tax page for that figure when it is out.

For executors: checking the person's lifetime gifts

If you are handling the estate of someone who gave money away during their life, those gifts can matter even if no gift tax was ever paid. Here is what to check.

1. Find every Form 709 they filed

Look through their tax files and ask the accountant who prepared their income tax returns. If you cannot find them, the IRS will send copies of gift tax returns on Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return; the IRS says to allow 75 calendar days. Ask family members, too, about large gifts, help with a house down payment, or loans that were forgiven.

2. File any returns that are missing

If the person made gifts above the annual exclusion in the year they died, or in earlier years without filing, the executor files those returns. If the donor dies before filing, the executor files the gift tax return, by the earlier of the estate tax return due date (with extensions) or the normal gift tax due date (with extensions).

3. Carry the gifts to the Form 706

Taxable gifts made after 1976 are added back on the estate tax return as adjusted taxable gifts. They count toward whether a Form 706 is required at all, and they use up exemption that would otherwise shelter the estate. Gift tax actually paid is credited. Gifts within the annual exclusion are not added back.

4. Check the state rules

Some states with an estate tax look back at recent gifts, generally the taxable part above the annual exclusion:

• New York adds back taxable gifts made within 3 years of death, for deaths before January 1, 2032. Because of New York's cliff, a few added-back gifts can push an estate over its exemption. NY calculator.
• Minnesota adds back federal taxable gifts made within 3 years of death, and counts them toward its filing requirement. MN calculator.
• Connecticut is the only state with its own gift tax. Its taxable estate includes the person's Connecticut taxable gifts made since 2005, and its gift return (CT-706/709) is due April 15 of the year after the gift, like Form 709. CT calculator.
• Vermont adds back gifts made within 2 years of death.

For the other states, start with the estate tax calculator and the state page for where the person lived.