The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Applicable Federal Rates (AFRs) (read interest rate) for December 2022. The new interest rate, or AFR, is announced in accordance with Section 1274(d) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Interest rates AFR table for December 2022

 AnnualSemiannualQuarterlyMonthly
Short-term4.55%4.50%4.47%4.46%
Mid-term4.27%4.23%4.21%4.19%
Long-term4.34%4.29%4.27%4.25%

How does the AFR interest rate affect you?

The applicable federal rate (AFR) is the minimum interest rate that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows for private loans. IRS takes these AFR interest rate as a benchmark interest for loans.If the interest on a loan is lower than the applicable AFR, it may result in a taxable event for the parties involved. The AFR also affects the estate taxes as per section 7520, for which the interest rate for December 2022 is 5.20 percent.

For example, if you give a loan to a person below the IRS-notified AFR, the interest not charged shall be deemed as interest money gifted to the loanee.IRS will charge the sum of interest not charged as taxable gift.

You can get the full revenue ruling for December 2022 here.

Prashant Thakur
Prashant Thakur is a practicing tax advisor on Income Tax Act of India . He also blogs on US taxation law (IRC) . He has more than 30 years of experience in dealing with tax issues ( 20 years on the other side of the table i.e for Income Tax department) . He has written three books - Tax Evasion Through Shares( 2008 & 2012) , Taxing Question Simple Answer (2013) and Crypto Taxation in USA (2022) . Other than taxation , he has great interest in cloud technology, WordPress and is found of small tech company .
Prashant Thakur
Prashant Thakur
Post Disclaimer

While the information on this site  - Internal Revenue Code Simplified-is about legal issues, it is not legal advice or legal representation. Because of the rapidly changing nature of the law and our reliance upon outside sources, we make no warranty or guarantee of the accuracy or reliability of information contained herein.

Categorized in: