<prompt> Human: My fiancé and I are having our wedding next year April 2018. Per the supposed custom, her parents have offered to pay for the wedding or most of it. They have offered to give us a check for 25,000, funds which we would use however we decide. My question is what are the tax implications of them writing us a lump sum 25,000 check? Would it be better if they paid for wedding expenses directly?  <response>: As someone said, check the law to see whether its better to give two checks for 12,500 or if one check for 25,000 is okay. In any case, gift taxes wont come into play here unless theyve already given away millions of dollars already.But the rule is that each year, an individual can give away a certain amount 14k to each beneficiary without having to file any forms with the IRS. Everything over that counts toward a lifetime gift maximum around 5 million, and then any gifts over that get taxed. This is so you cant give away your fortune to your kids right before you die in order to escape estate taxes.Each parent can give each of you 14k without having to report it, so youre not going to come close to even having to report anything, much less paying taxes on it. 