I have been using Amazon payments to send my girlfriend around $3000 this year. Does anyone know if I can write her a check for $14000 and not have to pay a gift tax? Or does the $3000 count toward the $14000 limit for gift tax??

I'd contact a tax professional.

AP doesn't write checks and the limit is $1k per month. So, it would take you 14 months from 1 account to use AP (and it would not be via check).

Are you thinking about a different service?

Oh sorry I didn't explain this very clearly. I was just concerned that using Amazon payments to send money to my girlfriend counts towards the $14000 gift limit before it gets taxed? I will be sending her just a personal check for $14000, but I wasn't sure if AP reports anything to the IRS.

Your GF seems to be doing well in this relationship :D

I've been following this thread for a while, and searching through it for clear answers but am a bit apprehensive to start with this. Maybe someone can provide a little bit of guidance (via PM if so inclined).

My SO (with different last name, not married, live together at same address) and I are on the same Chase card (so different cards, different names on the cards, same number/account) that I am trying to hit a spend bonus on. I am the primary and she is an AU. My plan was to send money from me to her then have her withdraw to her bank account, transfer to our joint account, then over to my personal account to pay the card. However, since I've seen upthread that the transaction lists the name and address of the individual paid I am afraid a payment to an AU would raise a red flag at Chase. Also, since AP knows we both live at the same address I feel like that could be an issue as well. Lastly, my SOs account is a Chase account, as is our joint account - so Chase could easily watch the money movement from a charge on the card, to her checking account, transferred to our account, etc. Am I being paranoid or should I find someone else to involve in this?

Thanks for any insight!

CFFrost - Chase sees a payment to Amazon payments. No problem. AP sees a payment from one person to another. No problem, even if the addresses are the same. You are doing a bunch of unnecessary steps, though.

Have HER set up HER card in AP with HER name (AP doesn't know or care that you are actually the primary), send you the money, deposit it in your account. Just don't have any card account, even with different names, set up on both of your Amazon accounts at any time. (including non-AP Amazon accounts)

Thanks, Kenny.

Yea I guess I was adding way more steps. She is typically more of a passive participant (and even sometimes reluctant - "why does Amazon want my bank information?!") so I naturally thought to make myself the one taking the initiative. But, when I think about it, she either has to log into her bank account and transfer the money to me, or log into AP and send me money - so it doesn't make much difference.

I saw a post upthread that listed what the transaction looks like (presumably from a CC statement) that shows name and address of the "merchant" paid. Is this not accurate? I also thought a transaction showing me as the merchant would look suspicious if I am the primary on the account.

CFFrost - the merchant on an AP transaction shows up as 'Amazon Payments 866-749-7545, WA 98102 US'. My wife doesn't like to have to deal with it either, so I take care of everything that happens with either of our AP accounts. And we have done exactly what you describe with an AU paying the primary. Just make sure it's her card and her name in her AP account, and that you don't for any reason have the same card linked to your own Amazon account of any kind.

I tried to read the old post but could not find the answer.

Can I do A->B->C? (A and C has the same address. A,B,C are all different people.)

Also A->B->C->A? ( is circle bad with three people?)

Thanks. PM me we need to keep this on the down load.

Thanks again,

It's "the down low".

Actually....I don't see why he can't keep his down load on the down low.

in fact, I hear that some people have, um, certain down loads that they *really* want to keep on the down low...

...just sayin....

It works in both scenarios, at least from personal experience. Enjoy.

Cheers,

PedroNY

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...atsthejoke.jpg

Don't know if it's intentional or not, but "on the down load" has been intentionally used in this thread and in the Vanilla reload threads. Kind of like "I hided the cards"

Andyandy