A gift affidavit is a legal document that is used to verify that a certain item was given to a person as a gift. It includes a sworn statement of a person (also referred to as donor) about making a gift to another individual (also called a donee) without any payments expected from that person. The gift affidavit helps a person receiving a gift make sure they don’t have to pay anything in exchange for the item they get.
It is quite common to use this affidavit form when it comes to costly presents such as motor vehicles, art objects, jewelry, etc. This document is especially relevant for cars as a gift as the gift affidavit will be further required in the process of transferring the title to a vehicle.
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A gift affidavit can be used for all gifts that involve expensive items. This type of legal documents is typically used in situations where:
As a result, a gift affidavit enables both the donor and donee to prove that a gift was not given as a loan or financial transaction. It is mostly relevant for assets that have high value or that are not typical to give in a form of a present. Documents such as gift affidavits help prove there is no financial component in the relations between the person making a gift and the recipient.
It doesn’t mean that you will need a gift affidavit on each of your birthdays when you get any valuable things from your family or friends. But you will need the affidavit if you were lucky enough to get an early work of Rembrandt or a car. It might be especially necessary for tax purposes as certain categories of gifts are exempt from taxes, but it should be proved with the use of a gift affidavit.
A gift affidavit is also one of the useful legal documents when a couple who gets divorced needs to share their jointly owned property. If one of them got a valuable item as a gift, a gift affidavit will let a person owing the gift not share it with their former spouse.
If you need an affidavit form, you can use one of plenty of free legal forms on the internet or get a printable document on our website. We have free legal forms for all life occasions. Our gift affidavit legal form is easy to fill in and download in several formats — ODT, DOC, and PDF.
If you decide to make use of our documents and download our free PDF, DOC, or ODT form of a gift affidavit, the following instructions will help you complete the form.
Step 1 — Information about the person making a gift
In the top left corner of the affidavit, write the state and county where you are executing the affidavit. Then, the document should tell your name and include the statement about you being of sound mind. The following wording can be used: “My name is [your name]. I am over [legal age in your state] years of age, of sound mind, capable of making this affidavit, and have personal knowledge of the facts stated herein.”
Step 2 — Information about the recipient and the date
Further, you should show that the item belonged to you and you are voluntarily making a gift to another individual. The wording in this legal document should be similar to this: “I was the owner of [name of the item].”
After that, you should mention the date of giving a gift and the name of the recipient of the gift. What you might write in the document is: “On [Date of making a gift] for the love and affection I bear for [name of the donee] and other good and valuable consideration, I gave to him/her, as his/her sole property, the aforementioned asset.”
Step 3 — Statement of making a gift
The gift affidavit should end with similar wording: “This affidavit is made to document my intent that the aforementioned asset shall be considered a gift.”
To complete the gift affidavit, put your signature, printed name, and date on the gift affidavit.
