Gift Tax in The United States - U.S. Federal Gift Tax Contrasted With U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Gifts

U.S. Federal Gift Tax Contrasted With U.S. Federal Income Tax Treatment of Gifts

The treatment of a gift for U.S. gift tax purposes (the transfer tax) should not be confused with the treatment of gifts for other tax purposes. For example, for U.S. income tax purposes, most gifts are excluded (under Internal Revenue Code section 102) from the gross income of the recipient, and thus are not taxed as income. For the purposes of taxable income, courts have defined "gift" as proceeds from a "detached and disinterested generosity." See Commissioner v. Duberstein (quoting Commissioner v. LoBue, 351 U.S. 243 (1956)).

Gifts from certain parties will always be taxed for U.S. Federal income tax purposes. Under Internal Revenue Code section 102(c), gifts transferred by or for an employer to, or for the benefit of, an employee cannot be excluded from the gross income of the employee for Federal income tax purposes. While there are some statutory exemptions under this rule for de minimis fringe amounts, and for achievement awards, the general rule is the employee must report a “gift” from the employer as income for Federal income tax purposes. The foundation for the preceding rule is the presumption that employers do not give employees items of value out of "detached and disinterested generosity" due to the existing employment relationship.

Under Internal Revenue Code section 102(b)(1), income subsequently derived from any property received as a gift is not excludable from the income taxed to the recipient. In addition, under Internal Revenue Code section 102(b)(2), a donor may not circumvent this requirement by gifting only the income and not the property itself to the recipient. Thus, a gift of income is always income to the recipient. Permitting such an exclusion would allow the donor and the recipient to avoid paying taxes on the income received, a loophole Congress has chosen to eliminate.