[charlesdm]

Very much depends on the policy country. In Belgium you can gift any arbitrary amount ($10,000, $5m, $100m) through a notarial deed (up to a day) before death and pay 3% "gift tax".

But the estate tax gets to 27% in the low hundreds of thousands.

[secabeen]

Fascinating. Do you see a lot of deathbed transfers of wealth? Certainly, there are some illiquid assets that are going to be hard to transfer at deathbed in any country. In the US, you would see tons of deathbed transfer (they had to create a look-back period for gifts to prevent people from "improvishing" themselves via gifts to kids to qualify for government-paid nursing home care through medicaid). Is it just a cultural difference in Belgium, or something else?

[charlesdm]

Definitely possible. Most wealthy people do transfers before death and avoid (most of) the estate tax. Normal people with a low net worth generally don't do this, because they are unaware of the avoidance mechanisms.

[Luc]

It's even better - in Belgium you can avoid even the 3% gift tax by simply donating the money AND not dying within 3 years (if you do, however, the donation then gets taxed as if it were part of the inheritance, so it may be worth just paying the gift tax).

[indemnity]

In New Zealand you can gift “people for whom you have natural love & affection” any sum and it will not be taxed.

$1k, $100k, $100MM, any amount.

A recent (2011) policy change, remains to be seen how it will play out.

[charlesdm]

This is not possible for all assets, but yes.

[Luc]

Yes, 'money'. Not real estate.