How Much Is the Federal Gift Tax?

A gift tax return, Form 709, is due for a year in which the gifts to any one person other than a spouse exceed $19,00026 USC § 2503(b); Rev. Proc. 2025-32 § 4.42Verified Sep 15, 2026View source, in which a gift of a future interest is made, or in which spouses split their gifts, whatever the amount. The giver files it, not the recipient, and it is due April 15 of the year after the gift26 U.S.C. § 6075(b)(1)Verified Oct 27, 2026View source; an extension of the giver's income tax return extends it too. A return is often due when no tax is: it records the part of the lifetime exemption the year's gifts used.

The gift tax uses the estate tax rate schedule, whose top rate is 40%26 USC 2001(c)Verified Sep 15, 2026View source. The tax for a year is a tentative tax on the giver's lifetime taxable gifts less the tentative tax on the gifts of earlier years, and the unified credit on the $15,000,00026 USC 2001(c), 2010; P.L. 119-21 §70106Verified Sep 15, 2026View source exemption, less whatever the earlier years consumed, is subtracted from it. Because the exemption sits far above the schedule's top bracket, every taxable dollar past it is taxed at the top rate, and nothing below it is taxed at all.

A gift to a spouse who is a U.S. citizen is deducted in full under the marital deduction, so it is never a taxable gift and is not reported, apart from certain terminable interests. A spouse who is not a U.S. citizen gets no marital deduction; in its place the first $194,00026 USC § 2503(b); Rev. Proc. 2025-32 § 4.42Verified Sep 15, 2026View source of a year's gifts to that spouse is excluded. A gift to a charity organized for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes, or to a government for public purposes, is deducted in full, and no return is needed where the giver's entire interest in the property passes to the charity.

Connecticut is the only state with a gift tax of its own. It follows the federal definition of taxable gifts, reaches a Connecticut resident's gifts wherever located except real estate and tangible property outside the state, and taxes the excess of lifetime gifts over the federal basic exclusion amount at a flat rate, with a cap on what the state collects in all. No other state levies a gift tax, though a state with an estate or inheritance tax reaches what remains at death.