Gift taxes

It's so that the giver can't shelter taxable income from investments by claiming them as gifts. Gift taxes only kick in with gifts of $10,000 or more to any one individual per year. In the case of jointly owned assets, each owner can gift $10,000 to the same individual.

For example, children are taxed at a much lower rate than adults because their income is typically only from investments. Each parent can 'gift' each child $10,000 per year ($20,000 per child) so that income generated by those investments are taxed at the child's rate rather than the higher rates of the parents.