Land gifted and Taxes

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I don't know how it works with a piece of land with the title, but I think a common strategy is that you give the person money up to the Limit over several years. I know it used to be $10,000 as a limt, but that may be outdated. So your father can give you a 10% share of the land with no taxes every year for 10 years and it'll always be under the limit, whereas if he gives it to you all in one chunk it's over the limit and you owe gift tax. I think if you have both a father and a mother that they can each give you $10,000 or whatever the limit is in one year with no gift tax so that it only takes five years. Or your father can give you ten thousand and your wife 10,000, and your mother can give you ten thousand and your wife ten thousand, and each gift Falls under the limit so you can do it in two and a half years.

But I've heard of doing that for cash, and I don't know how that would work on a monolithic asset like land.

With property the idea is similar. The short version is it’s commonly addressed through a loan where you forgive up to the annual gift limit in principal and interest until it’s paid off.