In short, yes. You don’t need to sell the stock before gifting shares of stock. Gifting stocks directly to someone, however, involves several issues you’ll need to have more knowledge about before making the transfer from your account to the beneficiary’s account.
- Capital Gains Taxes First, you’ll need to contemplate capital gains taxes, or those taxes you pay when you buy and sell stocks for a level of proceeds which differ from your cost basis.
- Gift Tax Rules Second, you’ll need to navigate gift tax rules. As noted above, for most individuals, this won’t pose a problem so long as the annual amount of gifted stock falls below $15,000 per person (or $30,000 per married couple filing jointly).
Gift taxes are an issue when you make gifts of cash or property that exceed the annual limits. Thankfully, for most people (married couples excluded), gifting digital shares isn’t considered a taxable gift so long as your total yearly giving doesn’t reach certain thresholds ($15,000 per person per year, or $30,000 per married couple per year) and it’s not done in excess of these same thresholds on an ongoing basis without sufficient consideration.