Who should be the beneficiary for a 529?

Submitted by m0moneym0pr0blems t3_11ec3j9 in personalfinance

Hi PF! I've been doing a LOT of research on 529's but can't seem to figure this one out. Is there any benefit or issue with who you name as the beneficiary? Should it be myself OR my child? I know I can always change this later, but who should I set it as when I open the account?

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Werewolfdad t1_jad34yq wrote

Ostensibly, it would be the person who will use the funds for education.

What is causing you to ask the question?

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Fish-Weekly t1_jad8mf7 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,110,032)

You can put in $17,000 per year or $85,000 and “superfund” it over 5 years without needing to file a gift tax form. Even if you exceed these amounts, it’s just filing a form; there is no tax impact until you hit the $12.9 million lifetime limit.

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Levertki1 t1_jadcd7l wrote

You are owner child is beneficiary. If at 18 your child decides to join the circus, you can move it to other children or wait until you get grandkids and name them as beneficiary. At all times, you own it. As long as you use it correctly for schooling of most sorts, taxes don’t come into play unless you get a credit by state for finding.

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FourFingeredBertans t1_jadmtx3 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,112,454)

That's how much you can gift annually without filing a gift tax exlusion form. Then there's an ADDITIONAL $12.9M (starting 2023) that you can gift and have excluded from taxes (hence - gift tax exclusion) over your entire life.

When you filed that form with the IRS, you were filing a form saying "I gave beyond my annual limit, but this additional amount should not be taxed because I have gifted less than $12.9M in my lifetime"

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