Estate Tax Calculator

The federal estate tax is a tax on transferring property at death. It is figured on fair market value and paid by the estate before heirs receive anything, and with a $15,000,000 exemption per person in 2026 only large estates owe it.

Two sister tools cover the neighboring questions: the Gift Tax Calculator for lifetime gifts and Form 709, and the Capital Gains Tax Calculator for heirs who sell what they inherit. The Net Worth Calculator helps you total assets and debts first.

Who owes federal estate tax in 2025 and 2026

It depends on the year of death. The basic exclusion amount is $13,990,000 for 2025 deaths (Rev. Proc. 2024-40) and $15,000,000 for 2026 deaths, set by section 70106 of Public Law 119-21, the July 2025 budget law often called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That law removed the scheduled expiration of the 2017 increase and indexes the $15 million base for inflation from 2027; the 2027 figure had not been published when this page was last updated in October 2026.

The executor files Form 706 and pays any tax from the estate within nine months of death. Heirs owe no federal inheritance tax, and an inheritance is generally not taxable income. Here is the exclusion before and after the 2017 law doubled it:

The credit column is the tentative tax on each exclusion at today's rates, the same figures the Form 706 instructions print. The couple column assumes the first spouse used none of the exclusion and portability was elected.

The estate tax formula

Form 706 builds the tax in a fixed order, and the calculator follows it:

Because the credit is priced with the same schedule, the result collapses to one line whenever the tax base exceeds the exclusion and no gift tax was paid:

Every dollar above the exclusion sits in the top bracket, so the shortcut is exact and a quick check on any figure you are given.

The unified rate schedule, and why 40% is the rate that counts

IRC section 2001(c) sets twelve brackets from 18% to 40%. The same table prices lifetime gifts, which is why the estate and gift taxes are called unified.

The 2026 applicable credit of $5,945,800 is exactly the tentative tax on $15,000,000, so it cancels the 18% to 39% layers and the first $14,000,000 of the 40% layer at once. The average rate on $15,000,000 is 39.64%, but no estate pays it; it only sets the size of the credit.

Worked example: a $22.75 million estate in 2026

A widow dies in 2026 owning a $3,200,000 home, $11,400,000 in investment and bank accounts, a $3,150,000 IRA, a $2,000,000 life insurance policy she owned, a $2,500,000 business interest and $500,000 of other property. The estate pays $650,000 of debts, $25,000 of funeral costs and $275,000 of administration expenses, and leaves $1,000,000 to charity. She made $800,000 of taxable gifts during life, and no DSUE amount is available. These are the calculator's default inputs.

1. Gross estate: $3,200,000 + $11,400,000 + $3,150,000 + $2,000,000 + $2,500,000 + $500,000 = $22,750,000.
2. Deductions: $650,000 + $25,000 + $275,000 + $1,000,000 = $1,950,000, so the taxable estate is $20,800,000.
3. Add adjusted taxable gifts: $20,800,000 + $800,000 = a $21,600,000 tax base.
4. Tentative tax: $345,800 + 40% × ($21,600,000 − $1,000,000) = $8,585,800.
5. Subtract the 2026 applicable credit of $5,945,800: estate tax = $2,640,000.

The shortcut agrees: 40% × ($21,600,000 − $15,000,000) = $2,640,000, or 11.60% of the gross estate. A 2025 death would have cost $3,044,000, which is $404,000 more. Form 706 is required either way.

Worked example: portability for a surviving spouse

Portability lets a surviving spouse add the unused exclusion of the spouse who died first, the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) amount, to their own. A husband dies in 2025 with a $3,000,000 taxable estate and leaves the rest to his wife under the marital deduction. His estate owes nothing, and his executor files Form 706 to elect portability, preserving $13,990,000 − $3,000,000 = $10,990,000.

She dies in 2026 with a $32,000,000 gross estate and $500,000 of debts and expenses, leaving a $31,500,000 taxable estate. Her exclusion is $15,000,000 + $10,990,000 = $25,990,000, so the tax is 40% × $5,510,000 = $2,204,000. Without the election it would be $6,600,000, so the first return was worth $4,396,000. The “Surviving spouse with DSUE” button loads this case.

The election needs a complete Form 706 filed within nine months (fifteen with the extension), or by the fifth anniversary of death under Rev. Proc. 2022-32 if no return was otherwise required. The DSUE amount cannot exceed the basic exclusion amount, comes only from the last deceased spouse, and also shelters the survivor's lifetime gifts.

Federal estate tax from $15 million to $50 million

Each row is a tax base (taxable estate plus adjusted taxable gifts) with no gift tax paid. The last column adds a full $15,000,000 DSUE amount, which requires a first spouse who also died in 2026 with no exclusion used.

Above the 2025 exclusion, the year of death is worth exactly $404,000 at every size: the $1,010,000 difference between the two exclusions, taxed at 40%. The effective rate approaches 40% slowly, reaching 10% at $20 million and 28% at $50 million.

What goes into the gross estate, and what comes off

The gross estate also catches property that passes outside the will:

• Real estate, accounts, business interests and personal property at fair market value on the date of death.
• IRAs, 401(k) plans and annuities.
• Life insurance the decedent owned or that pays the estate, including a policy given away within three years of death.
• Revocable trust assets, and half of property held jointly with a U.S. citizen spouse.

Deductions come off for debts and mortgages; funeral costs, net of any Social Security or VA death benefit; administration expenses; property passing to a U.S. citizen spouse (a spouse who is not a citizen needs a qualified domestic trust, or QDOT); bequests to charity, without limit; and state death taxes paid (IRC section 2058).

Scenarios that change the result

• First death in a marriage. The “First death, most to spouse” example has a $24,000,000 gross estate and a $20,400,000 marital deduction: no tax, but Form 706 is required and $12,000,000 of exclusion can pass to the survivor.
• Charity. Above the exclusion, each dollar left to charity saves 40 cents; the default $1,000,000 bequest saves $400,000.
• Lifetime gifts. Taxable gifts come back in at their value when given, so a gift mainly removes its later growth from the tax base.
• State death taxes. $1,000,000 of state tax paid lowers the federal tax by $400,000 for an estate above the exclusion.

State estate and inheritance taxes

Some states add their own tax. For 2026 deaths an estate tax applies in Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania tax heirs through an inheritance tax, and Iowa's inheritance tax ended for deaths after 2024.

State thresholds are often far lower than $15,000,000: a return is required above $2,000,000 in Massachusetts and $3,000,000 in Minnesota, and New York's 2026 exclusion is $7,350,000. Inheritance tax rates depend on the heir; Pennsylvania charges 0% for a surviving spouse, 4.5% for children and other lineal heirs, 12% for siblings and 15% for most others. This calculator does not compute state tax, but state tax paid can be entered as a deduction.

How to use this calculator, and who it is for

1. Pick the year of death.
2. Enter the gross estate at date-of-death value. For a policy the decedent owned, use the death benefit.
3. Enter debts, expenses and what passes to a spouse or to charity.
4. Add lifetime taxable gifts from earlier Forms 709 and any DSUE amount from a late spouse's Form 706.
5. Read the tax, the Form 706 verdict, the exclusion a spouse could keep and the line-by-line walk-through.

It suits families checking whether an estate is near the threshold, executors who want a first estimate before appraisals arrive, and couples weighing a portability election.

Key terms

• Gross estate: everything the decedent owned or controlled at death, at fair market value.
• Taxable estate: the gross estate minus deductions.
• Adjusted taxable gifts: taxable gifts made after 1976 that are not already in the gross estate.
• Basic exclusion amount: the per-person exemption, $15,000,000 for 2026.
• Applicable credit: the tentative tax on the exclusion plus any DSUE, $5,945,800 in 2026 without DSUE.
• DSUE amount: unused exclusion passed to a surviving spouse through portability.
• QDOT: a trust that allows a marital deduction for a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen.

Tips and limitations

• File Form 706 at the first death if the survivor's estate could ever exceed the exclusion.
• Keep every Form 709; the executor needs them to total adjusted taxable gifts.
• Get date-of-death appraisals. They also set the heirs' cost basis.

Not modeled: alternate valuation six months after death, special-use valuation, valuation discounts, section 6166 installments, credits for foreign death taxes and prior transfers, and the generation-skipping transfer tax, whose 2026 exemption is also $15,000,000.

Related calculators

• Gift Tax Calculator: lifetime gifts, the annual exclusion and Form 709.
• Capital Gains Tax Calculator: tax when heirs sell inherited property.
• Income Tax Calculator: tax on inherited IRA withdrawals and other income.
• Net Worth Calculator: total assets and debts before you start.

Sources

• Instructions for Form 706 (Rev. July 2026), IRS: rate schedule, Part 2, filing requirement, Form 4768 and portability.
• What's new, estate and gift tax and Estate tax, IRS: exclusion by year, gross estate and deductions.
• Rev. Proc. 2024-40, section 2.41, and Rev. Proc. 2025-32, section 2.14, IRS: the 2025 and 2026 exclusion amounts.
• Public Law 119-21, section 70106, 26 U.S.C. 2001 and 26 U.S.C. 2010, GovInfo.
• Publication 525 and Publication 551, IRS: inheritances and the basis of inherited property.
• State revenue agencies: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.