What are the US gift tax rules for gifts from non-US persons?

Question

I am a US permanent resident for several years now.

My family resides overseas and are not-US persons - they visit on tourist visas. They have bank accounts here in the US.

I am planning to buy my first house and want to use family money that has been saved for that purpose in our home country, amounting to 100k-200k USD.

If my family were US-persons, I understand that this would be subject to the 45% or so gift tax.

However, what is the rule if the givers are non-US persons and the receiver (myself) is a US-person? Would this be subject to the tax? Do I have to pay any tax on this?

Also, would it matter if the money is first transferred to their US accounts and then given to me, or if it is transferred directly to me ?

Answer 1

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p950/ar02.html

Gift tax is owed by the giver, not the recipient. So my first guess is that you can make the transfer in your home country, and as the givers will not be subject to US tax, it won't apply at all. You can then transfer the money into the US freely.

In any case, there's a lifetime exemption of 1mn USD. So, unless non-US persons don't get the exemption, I can't see the tax being a problem anyway unless there are going to be several more such transfers.