Denmark moves sibling gifts into gift-tax circle from 1 January 2027

Skattestyrelsen's guidance page 'Gaver: Så meget må du give i 2026' now states that, with effect for gifts given on or after 1 January 2027, siblings (søskende) are included in the closest person circle (den nærmeste personkreds) under section 22(1) of the boafgiftsloven (BAL, the act on duty on estates and gifts). For sibling gifts, that moves the regime out of personal income taxation and into gift tax from that date.Skat

For gifts to siblings given on or after 1 January 2027, the sibling recipient may receive gifts up to the tax-free basic amount (det skattefrie grundbeløb) with no duty, and any amount above the basic amount is subject to gift tax (gaveafgift) instead of personal income taxSkat. The page does not state the 2027 basic amount or the gift-tax rate for sibling gifts. For comparison, the page gives the 2026 tax-free amount for the existing closest circle as DKK 80,600; that is a 2026 figure for the current circle, not the 2027 terms for siblings.

For gifts to siblings given up to and including 31 December 2026, the treatment is unchanged: giver and recipient file no gift notification form (gaveanmeldelsesblanket)Skat and no gift tax is charged — the amount is taxed as income insteadSkat; the recipient instead enters the gift's value on the annual statement (årsopgørelse) in rubric 20 (Anden personlig indkomst, other personal income). The page carves out cases where giver and recipient shared a residence in the 2 years before the gift was given.

Until the change, the page groups siblings with friends, acquaintances and more distant family such as nephews and nieces (nevøer og niecer) under that income-tax treatment. Once siblings enter the closest person circle on 1 January 2027, sibling gifts above the basic amount fall under the gift-notification rules the page states: the gift must be notified to Skattestyrelsen no later than 1 May of the year after it was received, the gift tax is payable the day the notification is sent, both giver and recipient are responsible for the notification, and the recipient is primarily liable for the duty with the giver jointly and severally liable if the recipient does not pay.

Legal basis: boafgiftsloven section 22(1) (den nærmeste personkreds) and the gift-tax charge in section 23, as reflected in Skattestyrelsen's guidance 'Gaver: Så meget må du give i 2026'.