Disclaimer: I'm not a tax advisor or anything, just a humble payer.
The notion of "the family" is not a thing unless you're talking about dependents. Transferring money from one person to another is income for the person receiving the money. It's not being taxed twice, just once per time "earned". (and it's not even taxed until the limit per the comment in this thread! TIL)
To allow for these kinds of gifts they limit the amount that is tax free. Allowing unlimited gifts to "family" would likely result in all businesses being "family" businesses, etc etc. Lots of downstream ramifications.
So this seems to answer "how do I help my kids a reasonable amount without being taxed without creating a giant dodge"
Giant dodges are best done using LLCs and ownership by other family members. Typically this overhead costs a lot more to manage though, so it's only available to the super wealthy.
I kid here, a bit. But it's clearly also something being done quite often.
The notion of "the family" is not a thing unless you're talking about dependents. Transferring money from one person to another is income for the person receiving the money. It's not being taxed twice, just once per time "earned". (and it's not even taxed until the limit per the comment in this thread! TIL)
To allow for these kinds of gifts they limit the amount that is tax free. Allowing unlimited gifts to "family" would likely result in all businesses being "family" businesses, etc etc. Lots of downstream ramifications.
So this seems to answer "how do I help my kids a reasonable amount without being taxed without creating a giant dodge"
Giant dodges are best done using LLCs and ownership by other family members. Typically this overhead costs a lot more to manage though, so it's only available to the super wealthy.
I kid here, a bit. But it's clearly also something being done quite often.