[kileywm]

That is close, but not quite correct. You can gift <= $15000 per year without reporting it. You can gift > $15000 federal tax-free (state tax may apply), but must report it. Reporting it doesn't incur federal taxes until your lifetime gift total exceeds your lifetime gift exclusion of $11,700,000 (2021).

[birken]

You can gift $15,000 per person, per year, without counting against the exemption. If you go above that you start to chip into the massive lifetime exemption.

Unless you have a net worth way above $10 million dollars you don't need to worry about the gift tax. If you accidentally forgot to report a $30,000 "loan" that turns into a gift to a friend, the IRS isn't going to care. You might have to go back and fix it if they notice but it isn't going to be a problem.

The gift tax exists to prevent extremely rich people from cheating the estate tax. If you've never heard of the gift tax before you don't need to worry about.