<prompt> Human: Im about to buy a house. My family wants to contribute about 40000 total, split up amongst 2 or 3 donors with the majority share coming from my grandfather. No one wants to pay gift tax, but I would rather not any of them have to answer uncomfortable questions from federal agents. Would we be able to split up the gift between two years say, half this year, half after Jan 1 without structuring?  <response>: Each person giving a gift has a 14,000 annual exclusion from the gift tax, so if your grandfather is married, they could give you 28,000 before there are any gift tax implications. In addition, there is a 5,340,000 lifetime exclusion from the gift tax. Basically, if an individual gives you a gift over 14,000 in one year, they need to fill out a form and subtract the amount of the gift that is over 14,000 from their lifetime exemption. No gift tax is paid until the donor gives away more than 5.3M dollars 