Gifts of money tax liability

  • My grandma lives in Hong Kong, and she is planning give me USD 100,000 as gifts of money. The money will be sent by electronic transfer. I am now buying a house and I need the money for down payment. Do I need to file the return? Will I be charged with gift tax? There is no limit of how much money can be transfered into the U.S., is that right? Do I need to show evidence for the gifts of money? Thank you.


  • Hello and thank you for your question. Gifts are tax-free to the recipient, but if foreign gifts are more than $100,000 they must be reported to the IRS on Part IV of IRS Form 3520 http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3520.pdf So the $100,000 gift puts you just under the threshhold, if that's the only foreign gift that you are receiving. See the instructions for the special rules that aggregate gifts to you from multiple family members (Page 9-10 of the instructions) http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i3520.pdf Search terms used: 6039f 3520 site:irs.gov Thanks again for bringing us your question. Sincerely, Google Answers Researcher Richard-ga