How much of your estate can you gift tax free?

You can gift up to $19,000 per recipient per year (2026) completely free of gift tax and without touching your lifetime exemption, and beyond that, you have a separate $15 million lifetime estate and gift tax exemption before any federal transfer tax is actually owed.

These two limits work together. The annual exclusion resets every year and applies per recipient, so a parent with three children could give each of them $19,000 in 2026 (nine gifts total across three kids from two parents if splitting gifts) with zero reporting or tax consequences. Married couples can combine their exclusions through "gift splitting," effectively doubling the per-recipient amount to $38,000, though this requires filing a gift tax return (Form 709) even though no tax is owed.

Gifts above the annual exclusion don't trigger immediate tax. Instead, the excess counts against your $15 million lifetime exemption ($30 million for a married couple), which also covers what passes through your estate at death. Only after cumulative lifetime gifts and your taxable estate exceed that combined threshold does federal gift or estate tax actually apply.

Where valuation matters most is with gifts of property rather than cash, real estate, business interests, art, or other assets whose worth isn't self-evident. The IRS requires that these gifts be reported at fair market value, and a qualified appraisal supports that value if the return is ever questioned. Equity Business Valuation Services prepares USPAP-compliant valuations for gift tax filings on Form 709, including business interests and fractional ownership stakes, so your reported values hold up under IRS scrutiny.