Gift Tax Calculator

What a gift tax calculator works out

A gift tax calculator takes what you gave each person in a calendar year, subtracts the annual exclusion ($19,000 per recipient in 2026 under IRC §2503(b)), and reports the taxable gifts that remain, the lifetime exclusion they use, whether Form 709 is required and, once the $15,000,000 lifetime exclusion is used up, the gift tax due at 40 %.

The gift tax and the estate tax share one exclusion and one rate schedule (IRC §2001(c)), which is why the calculator reports "lifetime exclusion remaining" as its second figure: a taxable gift today is really a decision to use some of the exclusion now rather than at death. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

How much can you gift tax-free in 2026? The per-recipient exclusion

The most common mistake is to treat the annual exclusion as a cap on total giving. It is not. Under IRC §2503(b) the $19,000 applies separately to each person you give to, every year, with no limit on the number of recipients. $19,000 each to three children, two grandchildren and a friend is $114,000 of gifts with no taxable gift and no return.

Only the part of a gift to one person above $19,000 counts. In the calculator's defaults, a $25,000 gift to recipient 1 produces a $6,000 taxable gift; the $19,000 gift to recipient 2 produces none. Total given $44,000, excluded $38,000, taxable $6,000 — which is reported on Form 709 and reduces the lifetime exclusion to $14,994,000. Tax due: $0.

The relationship between you and the recipient makes no difference to the federal gift tax: a child, a friend and a stranger all get the same $19,000. Relationship-based rates belong to state inheritance taxes, which are paid by heirs, not donors. A spouse who is a U.S. citizen is the one exception — gifts to them are unlimited under §2523, and a non-citizen spouse has their own larger annual exclusion.

Do you have to pay gift tax? The lifetime exclusion

Almost never. Taxable gifts accumulate against the basic exclusion amount — $15,000,000 per person for 2026 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Rev. Proc. 2025-32) — and no tax is due until the lifetime total passes it. A $50,000 gift to one person is a $31,000 taxable gift; it leaves $14,969,000 of exclusion and $0 of tax.

When the exclusion is gone, every further dollar of taxable gift is taxed at 40 %, because the IRC §2001(c) schedule reaches its top rate at $1,000,000 and the unified credit of $5,945,800 exactly covers the tax on the first $15,000,000. Someone who has used the full $15,000,000 and gives $119,000 to one person in 2026 has a $100,000 taxable gift and owes $40,000. Form 709 Part 2 gets there by taxing the cumulative total and subtracting the tax on prior gifts and whatever credit is left; the calculator follows the same lines.

Using exclusion during life is not wasted: every dollar of taxable gift reduces the exclusion available to the estate by the same dollar, and nothing more. Whether to make large lifetime gifts — moving future growth out of the estate — is a planning question for an attorney or CPA; this page only reports the arithmetic. The estate tax calculator shows the other side of the same ledger.

Gift splitting for married couples

A married couple can elect under IRC §2513 to treat every gift either spouse makes during the year as made half by each. The effect is that each recipient gets both spouses' annual exclusions — $38,000 in 2026 — even when the money came from one spouse's account. Both spouses must consent, the election covers all gifts made that year, and both file a Form 709.

With splitting, a $100,000 gift from one spouse to a child becomes two $50,000 gifts. After each spouse's $19,000 exclusion, each reports a $31,000 taxable gift — $62,000 between them — and each spouse's lifetime exclusion falls to $14,969,000. The calculator shows the couple's totals and the per-spouse figures, and it assumes both spouses have used the same prior lifetime amount; if they have not, run it once for each.

When Form 709 is required even when no tax is due

IRC §6019 requires a United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return whenever a gift to any one person exceeds the annual exclusion, whenever a married couple elects gift splitting, and for any gift of a future interest regardless of size. The return is due April 15 of the following year — extendable with Form 8892, or automatically by extending your income tax return.

Most Forms 709 report $0 of tax. The return exists to record taxable gifts so the exclusion they used can be accounted for on later returns and, eventually, on the estate's Form 706. Not filing when required leaves that record missing and keeps the statute of limitations open on the gift's valuation.

Gifts that are never taxable, and what this calculator leaves out

Two categories are excluded without limit under IRC §2503(e), on top of the annual exclusion: tuition paid directly to the school, and medical bills paid directly to the provider. The payment must go to the institution — a cheque to the student or a reimbursement does not qualify. Gifts to a U.S.-citizen spouse (§2523), to charities (§2522) and to political organisations (§2501(a)(4)) are also outside the gift tax. The checklist on the calculator lists them so you leave them out of the rows.

Not modelled: the five-year election that lets a 529 plan contribution of up to $95,000 (five annual exclusions) be spread over five years; gifts of future interests, which get no annual exclusion; the larger annual exclusion for a non-citizen spouse; the generation-skipping transfer tax on gifts to grandchildren; and valuation discounts on gifts of business interests. Gifts of property are measured at fair-market value, which for anything other than cash or listed securities may need an appraisal.