2026 Gift Tax Exclusion

Who it applies to

The exclusion belongs to the person making the gift, and it is measured against each recipient separately: the revenue procedure states the amount for gifts to any person, so a donor giving to several recipients applies the figure to each of them rather than to the total given away. It covers present interests only; gifts of future interests in property are outside it. A gift to a spouse who is not a United States citizen falls under the separate, higher amount stated in the same item. The same $19,000 also fixes the floor for the § 2801 tax on a person in the United States who receives covered gifts or covered bequests from a covered expatriate during calendar year 2026.

What changed this year, and why

The annual exclusion for gifts did not move. For calendar year 2026, Rev. Proc. 2025-32 provides that the first $19,000 of gifts to any person, other than gifts of future interests in property, are not included in the total amount of taxable gifts made during that year under § 2503, the same $19,000 that Rev. Proc. 2024-40 stated for calendar year 2025. The item's scope did change: it now also carries the annual exception for covered gifts and covered bequests received from a covered expatriate, providing that the tax imposed under § 2801 applies only to the extent the value received during calendar year 2026 exceeds $19,000. A separate, much larger amount continues to apply to gifts to a spouse who is not a citizen of the United States.

Common questions

How much can I give someone in 2026 without it counting as a taxable gift?

For calendar year 2026 the first $19,000 of gifts to any person, other than gifts of future interests in property, are not included in the total amount of taxable gifts you made during that year under § 2503. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 states this as the annual exclusion for gifts. Anything above that first $19,000 to the same recipient is included in the total amount of taxable gifts for the year.

Did the annual gift tax exclusion change for 2026?

No. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 states $19,000 for calendar year 2026, the same amount Rev. Proc. 2024-40 stated for calendar year 2025. The exclusion is an inflation-adjusted item determined by reference to § 1(f), and an indexed amount can be republished unchanged from one year to the next. What did change is the item's heading, which for 2026 also covers covered gifts and covered bequests received from a covered expatriate.

Is the $19,000 gift exclusion per recipient or a yearly total?

Per recipient. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 states the exclusion as the first $19,000 of gifts to any person, so it is applied recipient by recipient rather than to everything you gave away during 2026. The revenue procedure states no combined annual ceiling covering all of a donor's recipients together, and no reduced figure for a donor who gives to many people.

What happens if I give one person more than $19,000 in 2026?

Only the first $19,000 of gifts to that person is excluded. Under Rev. Proc. 2025-32 the excess is included in the total amount of taxable gifts you made during calendar year 2026 under § 2503. Inclusion in that total is what the revenue procedure states; it does not address whether tax is ultimately payable, which turns on other estate and gift tax rules the document does not restate.

Does the $19,000 exclusion apply to a calendar year or a tax year?

A calendar year. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 states the amount for calendar year 2026, and its effective date section carries the annual exclusion for gifts under the calendar year rule, applying that item to transactions or events occurring in calendar year 2026. Most of the other adjusted items in the same revenue procedure instead apply to taxable years beginning in 2026, so the gift exclusion is deliberately treated differently.

What is the covered gift exception for 2026?

Rev. Proc. 2025-32 extends the annual exclusion item to cover it. The tax imposed under § 2801 on the receipt of covered gifts or covered bequests from a covered expatriate applies only to the extent that the value of covered gifts and covered bequests received during calendar year 2026 exceeds $19,000. That is the same figure as the ordinary annual exclusion, but it is measured on the recipient's side rather than the donor's.

Does the gift exclusion still set the ABLE account contribution limit for 2026?

Not for 2026. Rev. Proc. 2025-32 records that the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act changed how the aggregate annual limitation on ABLE contributions made after December 31, 2025 is adjusted for inflation, so it no longer follows § 2503. The revenue procedure therefore lists a separate amount for ABLE accounts under § 529A rather than pointing at the annual exclusion for gifts.

Do gifts of future interests qualify for the annual exclusion?

No. The exclusion in Rev. Proc. 2025-32 is stated for gifts to any person other than gifts of future interests in property, and the carve-out sits in the same sentence as the $19,000 figure. A transfer giving the recipient only a future interest draws on no annual exclusion at all, however small it is. The revenue procedure does not define which interests count as future interests.

Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Annual gift tax exclusion calculator takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.