Free Estate and Inheritance Tax Calculator for Every State
A free estate tax calculator and inheritance tax calculator in one: the 2026 federal estate tax exemption, all twelve state estate taxes plus DC, and beneficiary-by-beneficiary inheritance tax, with the math shown line by line.
Quick answer: An estate tax is paid by the estate on its total value before anything is distributed; an inheritance tax is paid by each beneficiary on what that person receives, at a rate set by how closely they were related to the deceased. The federal government taxes only estates, and only above $15 million in 2026. Twelve states and DC add their own estate tax (thresholds start at $1 million in Oregon), five states tax inheritances, and Maryland does both. Surviving spouses are exempt from both taxes everywhere.
Estimate Federal and State Death Taxes
Rules verified as of August 16, 2026. Laws change: confirm before relying.
Real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, business interests, vehicles, and life insurance the deceased owned or controlled, at date-of-death value.
State death taxes generally follow the decedent's home state, plus any state where the estate holds real property.
Deductions
These come off the gross estate before any tax is figured. The marital and charitable deductions are unlimited under federal law.
Everything left outright to a surviving U.S. citizen spouse is deducted in full; that is why most married couples owe nothing at the first death.
Amounts left to qualified charities are deducted in full, with no cap.
Mortgages, loans, credit card balances, and other debts the deceased owed at death.
Funeral costs plus executor, attorney, accounting, appraisal, and court costs of settling the estate.
Portability: if a spouse died first and the estate filed Form 706 electing portability, the survivor's estate adds the unused portion of the first spouse's federal exclusion on top of its own.
Enter the gross estate value and pick a state to see the estimated federal estate tax, state estate tax, and inheritance tax by beneficiary, with every step of the math shown.
Estate Tax vs Inheritance Tax: Who Actually Pays
The two taxes are routinely confused because both arrive with a death, but they hit different people. An estate tax is levied on the estate itself: the executor totals everything the deceased owned, subtracts debts, expenses, and anything passing to the spouse or charity, and pays tax on what is left before heirs receive a dollar. An inheritance tax skips the estate and taxes each beneficiary on the share that person receives, with the rate driven by relationship: a child and a family friend inheriting identical amounts can owe wildly different tax on them.
The practical consequences differ too. Under an estate tax, who inherits is irrelevant to the bill (apart from spouses and charities); under an inheritance tax, the will's beneficiary choices drive the bill directly, which is why our calculator asks for the beneficiary mix in Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Both taxes are separate from the beneficiary's income tax: inheriting is generally not taxable income. A carefully drafted last will and testament controls where property goes; the tax planning around it decides how much of it arrives.
The 2026 Federal Estate Tax Exemption and Rates
For decedents dying in 2026, the federal estate tax exemption (formally the basic exclusion amount) is $15,000,000 per person, a figure we verified directly from the IRS filing-threshold table rather than a secondary summary, because 2026 is the first year of the new statutory amount. It was $13,990,000 for 2025 deaths. Estates below the exclusion owe nothing and generally file only when electing portability; estates above it pay, in practice, a flat 40% on the excess, because the graduated 18% to 40% brackets are used up long before the exclusion is reached.
Three levers shape most federal outcomes. The unlimited marital deduction removes everything left outright to a U.S. citizen spouse. The charitable deduction removes gifts to qualified charities, without limit. And portability lets the survivor's estate stack the first spouse's unused exclusion on top of its own, up to $30 million combined in 2026, but only if the first estate filed Form 706 and elected it on time. Lifetime taxable gifts quietly consume the same exclusion, which is one of several simplifications our estimate flags rather than hides.
Which States Have an Estate Tax in 2026
Twelve states and the District of Columbia impose their own estate tax, each verified against the state revenue department or statute as of August 16, 2026. State thresholds are far below the federal exclusion, so an estate can owe state tax while owing nothing federally.
| Jurisdiction | 2026 Exemption | Top Rate | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | $15,000,000 (2026, matches the federal exclusion) | 12% flat | Conn. Gen. Stat. 12-391; DRS Form CT-706/709 (2026) |
| District of Columbia | $4,988,400 (2026 zero bracket amount) | 16% | D.C. Code 47-3701, 47-3702 |
| Hawaii | $5,490,000 | 20% | HRS 236E-6, 236E-8 |
| Illinois | $4,000,000 (threshold, not a credit) | about 16% at the top (28.6% marginal just above $4M) | 35 ILCS 405; Illinois Attorney General Form 700 |
| Maine | $7,160,000 (2026) | 12% | 36 M.R.S. 4102, 4103, 4119 |
| Maryland+ inheritance tax | $5,000,000 (plus Maryland DSUE) | 16% | Md. Code, Tax-Gen. 7-309 (estate); 7-203, 7-204 (inheritance) |
| Massachusetts | $2,000,000 | 16% | MGL c.65C, sec. 2A |
| Minnesota | $3,000,000 | 16% | Minn. Stat. 291.016, 291.03 |
| New York | $7,350,000 (2026) | 16% | N.Y. Tax Law 952 |
| Oregon | $1,000,000 (not indexed) | 16% | ORS 118.010 |
| Rhode Island | $1,838,056 (2026) | 16% | R.I. Gen. Laws 44-22-1.1; Division of Taxation ADV 2025-27 |
| Vermont | $5,000,000 | 16% flat | 32 V.S.A. 7442a |
| Washington | $3,000,000 (deaths on or after July 1, 2026) | 35% | RCW 83.100; DOR Table W |
Three traps inside that table
Oregon starts taxing at $1 million and never indexes it, the lowest bar in the country. New York runs a cliff: exceed 105% of its exclusion and the entire estate is taxed, not the excess. Washington now tops out at 35%, the highest state rate anywhere, under the table that took effect July 1, 2025. And in Illinois, crossing the $4 million threshold triggers an interrelated calculation with a marginal rate near 28.6% on the first dollars over the line.
Which States Have an Inheritance Tax
Five states tax beneficiaries on what they receive. Iowa's inheritance tax ended for deaths on or after January 1, 2025, per the Iowa Department of Revenue. Every state below fully exempts the surviving spouse.
| State | How it works |
|---|---|
| Kentucky | No Kentucky estate tax since 2005. Inheritance tax by beneficiary class: Class A family fully exempt; Class B taxed 4% to 16%; Class C taxed 6% to 16%. |
| Maryland | The only state with BOTH taxes: an estate tax of up to 16% of the excess over $5 million (with state-level portability), plus a 10% inheritance tax on non-exempt beneficiaries. |
| Nebraska | County-level inheritance tax: immediate relatives pay 1% above $100,000; remote relatives 11% above $40,000; all others 15% above $25,000 (deaths on or after January 1, 2023). Spouses are fully exempt. |
| New Jersey | The estate tax ended for deaths on or after January 1, 2018, but the inheritance tax remains: Class A family is exempt, siblings and children-in-law (Class C) pay 11% to 16% after $25,000, and unrelated beneficiaries (Class D) pay 15% to 16%. |
| Pennsylvania | Inheritance tax by relationship: 0% spouse, 4.5% direct descendants and lineal heirs, 12% siblings, 15% everyone else; charities exempt. A 5% discount applies if paid within three months of death. |
The pattern across all five states is the same: the closer the relationship, the lower the rate. Spouses pay nothing anywhere; children pay nothing in Kentucky, Maryland, and New Jersey, 4.5% in Pennsylvania, and 1% above a $100,000 exemption in Nebraska; siblings range from exempt (Kentucky, Maryland) through 12% (Pennsylvania) to as much as 16% (New Jersey, above $1.7 million); and unrelated beneficiaries face the top rates, 15% in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, up to 16% in Kentucky and New Jersey. Because the beneficiary mix drives the bill, the same estate can owe radically different inheritance tax depending on how the will splits it, something to weigh when you draft a will with our free generator or structure gifts through a living trust template.
Is There Still a Death Tax? The States With No Tax at All
The "death tax" label covers both taxes on this page, and for most Americans the honest answer is that neither applies. The federal exclusion of $15 million exempts nearly every estate, and most states have walked away from death taxes entirely since the federal credit that funded state pick-up taxes disappeared in 2005. We affirmatively verified the following 34 states as imposing no estate or inheritance tax, each against its revenue department, court system, or statute as of August 16, 2026: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Where you die, and where your real estate sits, decides which column you land in, which is why residency and property titling are estate planning decisions, not just tax trivia.
What Actually Reduces Estate and Inheritance Tax
The big levers are structural, and all of them are documents. The marital deduction defers everything to the second death; portability preserves the first spouse's exclusion, but only if the executor files for it; charitable bequests come off the top without limit; lifetime gifts move future appreciation out of the estate; and trusts, from a revocable living trust (which avoids probate, though not tax by itself) to an irrevocable trust that removes assets and life insurance from the taxable estate, do the heavy lifting in taxable estates. In inheritance-tax states, even the choice of who inherits changes the bill.
None of it works without executed documents. A will that was never signed correctly, a trust that was never funded, or a portability election that was never filed produces the default outcome, and the default is the tax table above. Start with our will preparation services for attorney-drafted documents, use the free living will generator and power of attorney generator for the incapacity documents every plan needs, and see the full estate planning service for how the pieces fit together.
Where These Numbers Come From
Every figure in this tool was checked against a primary source on August 16, 2026: the federal exclusion and rate schedule from irs.gov and the Form 706 instructions; each state's exemption and rate table from its revenue department or statute (for example, Washington's Table W from the Department of Revenue, New York's schedule from Tax Law section 952, and Kentucky's class tables from the Department of Revenue guide); and Illinois from the Attorney General's own published calculator and worked examples, which our implementation reproduces exactly. States we could not confirm from a primary source are labeled unverified on their results instead of being filled in from memory. Rates and exemptions change, several are indexed annually, and Washington's exclusion even changes mid-year, so confirm the current figure with the state before relying on any estimate here.
This Calculator Estimates. Statutes and Elections Decide.
This tool simplifies deliberately: it does not account for lifetime taxable gifts, the federal deduction for state death taxes paid, apportionment of out-of-state property, QTIP and other trust elections, special-use valuation, or family business reliefs, each of which can change the result substantially. It is not legal or tax advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Estate tax returns have hard deadlines (the federal return is due nine months after death) and missed elections cannot always be repaired. Confirm your numbers with a licensed attorney or CPA in your state before acting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between estate tax and inheritance tax?
An estate tax is charged to the estate itself, on the total value of everything the deceased owned, before anything is distributed; the executor pays it from estate funds. An inheritance tax is charged to each beneficiary on what that person receives, and the rate depends on how closely the beneficiary was related to the deceased: spouses always pay nothing, close family usually pays little or nothing, and unrelated beneficiaries pay the most. The federal government imposes only an estate tax. Twelve states and the District of Columbia impose their own estate tax, five states impose an inheritance tax, and Maryland imposes both.
What is the federal estate tax exemption for 2026?
The federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 for decedents dying in 2026, up from $13,990,000 in 2025. We verified both figures directly from the IRS filing-threshold table at irs.gov. Only the value of the taxable estate above the exclusion is taxed, and a surviving spouse can add the deceased spouse's unused exclusion (DSUE) on top through the portability election, giving a married couple up to $30 million of combined exclusion in 2026.
Which states have an estate tax in 2026?
Twelve states plus Washington, DC: Connecticut ($15 million exemption, matching the federal figure), Hawaii ($5.49 million), Illinois ($4 million), Maine ($7.16 million), Maryland ($5 million), Massachusetts ($2 million), Minnesota ($3 million), New York ($7.35 million), Oregon ($1 million), Rhode Island ($1,838,056), Vermont ($5 million), Washington ($3 million), and the District of Columbia ($4,988,400). Oregon has the lowest threshold, and Washington has the highest top rate at 35%.
Which states have an inheritance tax?
Five states still tax beneficiaries on what they inherit: Kentucky (up to 16%), Maryland (10%), Nebraska (1% to 15%, collected by counties), New Jersey (up to 16%), and Pennsylvania (up to 15%). Maryland is the only state with both an inheritance tax and an estate tax. Iowa finished phasing out its inheritance tax and does not apply it to deaths on or after January 1, 2025. In every one of these states the surviving spouse is fully exempt, and children are exempt everywhere except Pennsylvania (4.5%) and Nebraska (1% above $100,000).
What is the federal estate tax rate?
The federal rate schedule technically runs from 18% to 40%, but the brackets below 40% are exhausted by the first $1 million of taxable transfers, and the exclusion ($15 million in 2026) is far larger than that. The practical result: every dollar above the exclusion is taxed at a flat 40%. A $17 million taxable estate in 2026, for example, owes roughly 40% of $2 million, which is $800,000.
What is portability of the estate tax exemption?
Portability lets a surviving spouse inherit the unused portion of the first spouse's federal exclusion, called the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE). It is not automatic: the executor of the first estate must file a federal estate tax return (Form 706) and elect portability on it, even when no tax is owed, and the deadline is strict. Note that portability is a federal concept: most state estate taxes do not honor it (Illinois expressly does not), though Hawaii and Maryland recognize a state-level version.
Do beneficiaries pay income tax on an inheritance?
Generally no: an inheritance itself is not income for federal income tax purposes, whether it is cash, a house, or stock. The main exceptions are assets with built-in untaxed income, most importantly inherited traditional retirement accounts (withdrawals are taxable to the beneficiary) and things like final paychecks or accrued interest. Whether a separate estate or inheritance tax applies is a different question, which is what this calculator estimates.
Is there still a death tax?
"Death tax" is a political nickname, not a legal term; it refers to the estate and inheritance taxes this page covers. The federal estate tax still exists but reaches very few families: with a $15 million per-person exclusion in 2026, the overwhelming majority of estates owe nothing federally. The state-level picture matters more for most people, because state thresholds run as low as $1 million (Oregon) and inheritance taxes in five states can hit even modest bequests to distant relatives or friends.
Does a surviving spouse pay estate or inheritance tax?
Almost never. Federally, the unlimited marital deduction removes everything passing outright to a U.S. citizen surviving spouse from the taxable estate, and every state estate tax includes a comparable deduction. All five inheritance-tax states fully exempt the surviving spouse as well. The caution flags are a non-citizen spouse (the unlimited deduction requires special trust planning) and the second death, when the couple's combined wealth passes to the next generation with no marital deduction left, which is exactly when portability and trust planning matter.
What is the New York estate tax cliff?
New York phases out its exclusion instead of taxing only the excess. If the taxable estate exceeds the exclusion ($7,350,000 for 2026 deaths) by more than 5%, the credit disappears entirely and the whole estate is taxed from the first dollar. In 2026 the cliff sits at $7,717,500: an estate just under it owes little or nothing, while an estate just over it owes tax on the full amount, a swing that can exceed half a million dollars across a few thousand dollars of value. Planning around the cliff (often with charitable gifts) is a staple of New York estate practice.
How much is the Illinois estate tax on a $5 million estate?
The Illinois Attorney General's own fact sheet puts it at $285,714 on a $5,000,000 all-Illinois estate. Illinois is unusual: the $4 million exclusion is a threshold rather than a deduction, and once an estate crosses it the tax is computed with an interrelated calculation, which produces an effective marginal rate of about 28.6% on the first dollars above $4 million. Our calculator runs the Attorney General's official algorithm, so it reproduces that published figure exactly.
Is life insurance included in the taxable estate?
Often yes, and it surprises families: life insurance proceeds are generally included in the gross estate when the deceased owned the policy or held rights over it (the power to change beneficiaries, borrow against it, or cancel it), even though the payout goes straight to a beneficiary and skips probate. That is why large policies are frequently placed in an irrevocable life insurance trust during life. Proceeds paid to a policy the deceased truly did not own or control sit outside the estate.
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