Legal question:

[Guy_Montag]

Here's the situation:

My sister lives with her husband & two kids in California. She & the rest all still have British citizenship.

My parents live in the UK.

My parents want to give my sister a significant sum of money to help her buy a house.

So the question is: what is the maximum sum that can be given as a gift under US/CA law?

[sui generis]

1. That's subject to British law -

if you are giving a gift amount to a foreign citizen without a green card I'm not sure there actually are any American taxes due, but to an American citizen I believe it's $5,000 annually. Any amount greater than that has to be declared as income.

[Bronco69]

2. That's kind of complicated since there are two

countries/continents involved, but you can give up to $11,000 dollars annually to someone here and they don't have to claim it as income.

[China_cat]

3. $11,000 before it's taxable.

Just went through this with a gift from my husband's mother. (Dutch)

[GardeningGal]

4. I'm pretty sure it's $11,000 per individual.

So if they want/need to give more, give 11,000 to the daughter and 11,000 to the son-in-law.

[Hugin]

5. Keep in mind that's $11,000 from each parent.

If they want to give separately to give a larger total.

Be sure to report each gift!

Also, the mortgage companies are now obligated to get a
"gift letter" stating the source of your funds.

Be sure to check current laws about transfers and taxes.
I did mine a couple of years ago and things may have changed.

[China_cat]

6. Like I said, we just went through this

within the past 3 weeks.

[Guy_Montag]

7. Thank you all - I'll pass that on. n/t