It doesn't add much to the story though.
Edit: Thanks to comments below I found out the sender pays the tax if over $12.06M not the receiver of the gift.
In France, as far as I know, it is $150k€ every 10 years to your children only.
Edit : above it has to be integrated to your income tax IIRC, paid by the receiver only.
The gift exemption and gift taxes apply to the giver, not the recipient. (The gift and estate tax are effectively one combined tax.)
Most people don't want to pay income tax or a windfall tax on the gift so it makes more sense for the Giver to pay the transfer tax
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...
> The donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax. Under special arrangements the donee may agree to pay the tax instead.
The lifetime exemption on gifts and annual exemption on gifts are thresholds for the giver; not the recipient of the gift.
> If you receive a large cash gift you may be subject to income tax on that money.
This is more or less not true? Other than the (very weird) situation of agreeing to pay the gift tax, as the recipient you generally do not owe income taxes on the gift. If you were gifted something that generates income (e.g., stock or rental property), you will owe tax on that income after you receive it.