Key Takeaways
- The IRS raised the annual exclusion for gifts to a spouse who isn’t a U.S. citizen to $201,000 for 2027, up from $194,000 for 2026.
- Spouses who are both U.S. citizens can give each other any amount under the marital deduction, but gifts to a non-citizen spouse don’t get it.
- A 68-year-old who gives a non-citizen wife $250,000 toward a condo this year makes a $56,000 taxable gift and has to report it on Form 709.
- Giving $194,000 by Dec. 31 and the other $56,000 in January keeps the whole gift inside the two years’ exclusions.
If you’re married to someone who isn’t a U.S. citizen, the IRS just gave you a bit more room to be generous. On Nov. 5, it raised the annual exclusion for gifts to a non-citizen spouse to $201,000 for 2027, up from $194,000 this year.
That’s a lot of room, but it’s still a limit, and couples who are both citizens don’t have one at all. So if you’re planning a big gift to your spouse, it pays to know this year’s limit and when it goes up.
Say you’re helping her buy a condo
Let’s take a hypothetical: You’re 68, a U.S. citizen, and your wife isn’t. You want to give her $250,000 toward a condo this year. If she were a citizen, that would be the end of the story. Gifts between spouses who are both U.S. citizens get the marital deduction, so you could give her $250,000, or $2.5 million, with no gift tax return to file for it.
But the marital deduction doesn’t cover gifts to a spouse who isn’t a citizen. So only part of your $250,000 is shielded this year.
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The IRS gives you $194,000 of room for her this year
Gifts to a non-citizen spouse get their own annual exclusion instead. For gifts made in 2026, it’s $194,000, more than 10 times the $19,000 you can give anyone else. For 2027, it rises to $201,000, while the ordinary exclusion goes to $20,000. The exclusion covers only what she gets outright. A gift of a future interest, meaning one she can’t use or enjoy until some later date, gets no annual exclusion at all. You have to report it on Form 709 whatever its size.
You’ll file Form 709 for the $56,000, but probably owe no tax
If you give her the full $250,000 this year, $194,000 of it is excluded. The other $56,000 ($250,000 minus $194,000) is a taxable gift. You report it on Form 709, since your outright gifts to her went over this year’s exclusion.
That doesn’t mean you send the IRS a check. The $56,000 counts against your lifetime exclusion, the same one that shields your estate, which the IRS puts at $15 million for 2026. You owe no gift tax unless your taxable gifts over your lifetime go above that. So for most couples, going over is a paperwork problem, plus $56,000 less of that exclusion left for your estate. It’s a bigger deal if your estate could come anywhere near $15 million, since every dollar of exclusion you use now is one your estate can’t use later.
Split the gift across New Year’s
If the condo can wait a few weeks, there’s a cleaner way to do this: Give her $194,000 by Dec. 31 and the other $56,000 in January. The first gift uses all of 2026’s exclusion, so it only works if you haven’t already given her other gifts this year. The second uses $56,000 of 2027’s $201,000, which leaves you $145,000 of room for anything else you give her next year. You make no taxable gift to her in either year, so you file no Form 709 on her account, and your lifetime exclusion stays whole.
Of course, the money has to be able to move in two pieces. If the closing is set for December and she needs all $250,000 at the table, the split won’t work.
Frankly, for most couples the $56,000 overage costs a form and nothing more. But putting a January date on the second gift costs nothing at all, so if the closing allows it, I’d wait. And if your wife becomes a U.S. citizen down the road, the cap goes away for gifts you make her after that, since the IRS goes by her citizenship at the time of the gift.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
