Exclusion Amount

In 2010 and for many prior years the gift tax exclusion, the amount which could be gifted without triggering any gift tax (over and above the annual exclusion amount which is $13,000 in 2010, plus direct qualifying tuition and medical payments) was $1 million. It is $5 million in 2011 and $5 million, indexed for inflation from 2010, in 2012. In 2013, absent future Congressional action, it will drop again to $1 million.