Set an Interest Rate

Interest-Free doesn't mean hassle-free. Many loans among family members are interest-free. But be careful. If you don't set an interest rate, the IRS, in its family-friendly way, will do it for you. And since that interest would be considered income for the lender, the IRS will happily tax the interest payments that were never paid. You have now entered the hideously complex world of "imputed interest." Essentially, the IRS, eager to raise revenue, has decided that for a loan to be a loan, interest must be paid, and if interest is being paid, someone is making taxable income.

The IRS's enthusiasm does not stop there. Not only does the agency place a tax on imaginary income, but it assumes that the borrower could not afford to make the interest payments (he had to borrow money, didn't he?) and then acts as though the lender gave him the money to pay the interest. Enter the gift tax. So the money the lender never received but pays taxes on anyway could also count against the $11,000 annual tax-free gift limit, and if it exceeds that, then the gift and estate tax exemptions. This is not all as bad as it sounds, and in most cases these penalties can be avoided with good planning.