SOI tax stats - Gift tax statistics

 

Gift tax statistics OneSheet PDF

The OneSheet presents a project description, highlights of the data, and selected figures.

What is the federal gift tax?

The federal gift tax is a tax on the right to transfer property from a living person to other persons or trusts. Reported on Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, data are collected on the donor and recipient of gifts that exceed the annual exclusion. The name of the recipient, recipient's relationship to the donor, type of property, and value of gift are reported, as are the total value of a donor's lifetime gifts and tax computation items.

For information about selected terms and concepts and a description of the data sources and limitations, please visit Gift tax study metadata.

Statistical tables

All tables are available as Microsoft Excel® files. A free Excel viewer is available for download, if necessary.

Data presented Classified by Tax years
Table 1: Total gifts of donor, Total gifts, Deductions, Credits, and Net gift tax Size of current period gift and tax status

2021 XLSX2020 XLSX2019 XLSX2018 XLSX2017 XLSX2016 XLSX2015 XLSX2014 XLS2013 XLS2012 XLS2011 XLS2010 XLS2009 XLS2008 XLS2007 XLS2006 XLS2005 XLS2004 XLS2003 XLS1997 XLS

The Tax Stats Table Wizard tool is no longer available due to declining usage and budgetary pressures.  However, both the public-use microdata and aggregated data used in the Table Wizard programs remain available as part of SOI's tax stats web pages. For any questions or concerns, contact Statistical information services.

SOI Bulletin articles

These articles are in .PDF format.  Adobe Acrobat® reader

2010–2016 Gifts PDF

This article highlights information about the donors, donees, and types and amounts of gifts given during this period. Donors tended to skew slightly female and approximately half were married. Most donees were relatives of the donor, specifically their children or grandchildren. Gifts of cash, stocks and bonds, and real estate made up a majority of the value of the gifts given every year. Almost all gift taxes owned in any given year were paid by donors with total gifts of more than $1 million for that year. Donors file Form 709, United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, to report gifts made during a given calendar year.

2009 Gifts PDF

This article presents data on gifts made during 2009. Donors filed a total of 223,093 returns for 2009, reporting a total of $$37.9 billion in assets transferred to 867,507 donees, primarily children and grandchildren.

2008 Gifts PDF

This article presents data on gifts made during 2008. Donors filed a total of 234,714 returns for 2008, reporting a total of $40.2 billion in assets transferred to 927,554 donees, primarily children and grandchildren.

2007 Gifts PDF

This article describes gifts made during calendar year 2007.  There was a total of 257,485 gift tax returns filed in 2008.  247,932 returns, or 96.3 percent, were nontaxable.  The remaining 9,553 (3.7 percent) were taxable.

Wealth transfers, 2005 Gifts PDF

This article describes gifts made during calendar year 2005.  A total of $38.5 billion in assets was transferred from donors to donees, or gift recipients.  Only 2.9 percent of returns were taxable, with $1.7 billion in gift tax liability reported.

Inter vivos wealth transfers, 1997 Gifts PDF

This article describes gifts made during calendar year 1997.  Like transfers of wealth at death, wealth transfers during life—called inter vivos wealth transfers—are subject to Federal taxation.  Only individual gifts in excess of $10,000 were potentially taxable for gift year 1997.