Avoiding Gift Tax
My adult daughter is a co-signer on my Checking account. An emergency situation occurred on her house and I want to give her more than the $18k allowed tax free for a gift. Since she is on my checking account, can she write herself a check on our Checking account and then deposit the money into her (only) checking account to avoid the gift tax over $18k.
Terry Says
Well, you actually don’t pay the gift tax until you die, when it is part of the combined estate and gift tax — which only applies if your estate is over $18 million. So I really wouldn’t worry about it. And yes, if she is a co-owner of that joint account, she could consider that a withdrawal of her own money. And you could gift her $18k from another account.
