Here is the short answer to one of the most common questions we get asked: there is no gift tax in Australia. You can give your children $100,000 in cash tomorrow and neither you nor they will pay a cent of tax on the gift itself. But that short answer is dangerously incomplete. Gifting assets can trigger capital gains tax for the giver, gifting cash can cut a parent’s age pension, and receiving money from overseas can land in your tax return under rules most people have never heard of. The gift is tax-free — the consequences often are not.

This guide from Trinity Accounting Practice walks through what actually happens, tax-wise and Centrelink-wise, when money or assets change hands within Australian families — and the paperwork that protects everyone involved.

There is no gift tax — so what is the catch?

Australia abolished its federal estate and gift duties decades ago. Today, a genuine gift of cash is not assessable income to the person receiving it, and the giver does not pay tax simply for giving. The ATO confirms that genuine gifts and windfalls are amounts you do not include as income.

The catch is that “gift tax” questions are almost never really about the gift. They are about four separate sets of rules that sit around it:

Capital gains tax (CGT) — if you give away an asset rather than cash.
Centrelink deprivation rules — if the giver receives, or wants to receive, the age pension or other means-tested payments.
Income versus gift characterisation — regular payments that look like income may be taxed as income.
Section 99B — money arriving from overseas trusts and estates.

Gifting assets: CGT hits the giver, not the receiver

This is the rule that surprises people most. If you gift an asset — shares, an investment property, cryptocurrency, a holiday house — the tax law treats you as having sold it at market value on the day of the gift, even though no money changed hands. This is called a deemed disposal (the ATO treats the transfer as a sale at market price under the market value substitution rule).

So a parent who transfers an investment property to their adult child “for free” may face a CGT bill calculated as if they had sold the property for its full market value. Stamp duty in NSW is generally also payable by the recipient on the market value, with limited exemptions. The gift costs nothing to give and potentially a great deal to have given.

Cash, by contrast, is not a CGT asset in this sense — gifting cash does not trigger CGT. That is why timing and asset selection matter so much in family wealth transfers: gifting $300,000 in cash and gifting $300,000 of shares are very different tax events.

Centrelink gifting rules: the $10,000 and $30,000 limits

If you receive — or expect within five years to apply for — the age pension or another means-tested Centrelink payment, gifting is restricted by the deprivation rules. As at June 2026, Services Australia allows gifts of up to:

$10,000 per financial year, and
$30,000 over any rolling five-year period.

Gift more than that, and the excess is treated as a “deprived asset”: Centrelink keeps counting it under the assets test for five years from the date of the gift, and applies deeming (a notional rate of return Centrelink assumes you earn) under the income test — even though the money is gone. Gifts generally need to be reported to Centrelink within 14 days.

A common Sydney scenario: a Beverly Hills couple in their early seventies gives $150,000 to a daughter for a home deposit. There is no tax on the gift. But $140,000 of it exceeds the gifting free area, remains assessable for five years, and reduces their part age pension for that entire period. Had they sought advice first, staging the gift or timing it more than five years before pension age could have produced a very different outcome. (Always confirm current limits with Services Australia or a licensed financial adviser before acting.)

Gifts versus income: when “gifts” get taxed anyway

A genuine, one-off gift made from natural love and affection is not assessable income. But the label “gift” does not decide the question — the substance does. Payments are more likely to be treated as assessable income where they are regular, expected, and connected to something you do. Examples that attract ATO attention:

“Gifts” from clients or customers connected to services you provide.
Regular transfers from overseas relatives that, on the facts, look like earnings being repatriated.
Content-creator and influencer “gifts” — products and payments connected to your activities are generally assessable.
Distributions from family trusts labelled informally as gifts — trust distributions are assessable under the trust rules, full stop.

On that last point: gifting into a family trust also deserves care. Money given to a discretionary trust is no longer yours, and any income it earns is taxed under the trust regime — and gifts to a trust can still count as deprivation for Centrelink purposes where the giver cannot benefit.

Overseas gifts and section 99B — the trap for migrant families

Money arriving from overseas family is common in Sydney and usually fine — a genuine gift from your parents abroad is not assessable. But where the money comes out of a foreign trust or a deceased estate that has accumulated income, section 99B of the tax law can tax the Australian resident recipient on amounts that represent untaxed trust income. The ATO has issued guidance in this area and AUSTRAC reports all significant international transfers, so these amounts are visible.

If you are receiving a large sum from overseas — an inheritance, a family distribution, help with a house — get the source documented before the money lands. Whether it came from trust capital, trust income, or a simple personal gift can change the tax outcome from nil to your marginal rate.

Documentation: statutory declarations and “gifted deposits”

Large gifts should leave a paper trail, for three audiences:

The ATO — if a large deposit appears in your account during a review, a contemporaneous statutory declaration or gift letter from the giver, plus bank records showing the source, is what settles the question quickly.
Lenders — banks generally will not count a “gifted deposit” towards a home loan unless the giver signs a gift letter or statutory declaration confirming the money is non-repayable. Through our related business Nexus Wealth Partners (mortgage broking), we prepare these as standard whenever a family gift forms part of a deposit.
The family itself — undocumented “gifts” have a way of becoming “loans” in family law disputes and deceased estates. A one-page deed recording whether the money is a gift or a loan can prevent years of conflict.

Worked example — same generosity, two very different bills

A Hurstville couple, both 68 and on a part age pension, want to help their son buy his first apartment. Option one: transfer him their $480,000 investment unit (bought in 2009 for $260,000). The deemed disposal crystallises a capital gain of roughly $220,000; after the 50% CGT discount, about $110,000 is added to their assessable income, producing a combined tax bill in the order of $30,000–$35,000 — plus the unit’s value still counts against their pension as a deprived asset above $10,000 for five years, and their son pays NSW transfer duty on $480,000.

Option two: they keep the unit, gift $10,000 cash this financial year within the Centrelink free area, and provide a further documented amount as a properly recorded family loan that the son refinances later, with Nexus Wealth Partners structuring the gifted-deposit paperwork for his lender. No CGT event, minimal pension impact, full bank acceptance. Same generosity — a five-figure difference in cost. The right answer depends on the family’s full circumstances, which is exactly why this decision deserves advice before, not after, the transfer.

A Trinity insight from 22 years in practice

In 22 years we have almost never seen a family gift cause a problem because of the gift itself. The problems come from the order of operations: the asset is transferred first and the questions are asked second. CGT, Centrelink deprivation and stamp duty are all assessed on what you did, not what you meant. A 30-minute conversation before signing anything routinely saves tens of thousands of dollars — and the families who document gifts properly at the time never end up arguing about them later.

What this means for you

If you are gifting cash: no tax applies to the gift, but document it — a gift letter or statutory declaration protects both sides.
If you are gifting shares, property or crypto: the deemed disposal rules mean you may pay CGT as if you sold at market value. Get the numbers before you transfer.
If you are on, or approaching, the age pension: stay inside the $10,000 / $30,000 Centrelink limits or model the deprivation impact first.
If you are receiving money from overseas: establish whether it is a personal gift, an inheritance or a trust distribution — section 99B may apply, and the paperwork matters.
If a family gift is funding a home deposit: lenders need a signed gift declaration. Nexus Wealth Partners handles this alongside the loan.
If gifting is part of your estate plan: coordinate it with your will, super death benefit nominations and any family trust — a gift made in isolation can undo a carefully built plan.

How Trinity can help

Trinity Accounting Practice has been advising Sydney families on gifting, CGT and intergenerational wealth transfers from our Beverly Hills office since 2003. We model the CGT outcome of asset gifts before you commit, prepare the documentation the ATO and lenders expect, coordinate Centrelink gifting questions with licensed financial advisers, and — through Nexus Wealth Partners — structure gifted deposits so the bank says yes the first time.

Talk to the Trinity team before you gift, not after →

General advice only. This article contains general information current as at June 2026 and does not constitute tax, financial or legal advice. It does not take into account your personal circumstances, objectives or needs. Before acting on any information in this article, you should consider its appropriateness to your situation and seek professional advice from Trinity Accounting Practice or another qualified adviser. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.