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Estate Tax Calculator

✦ Finance & Money

Use this estate tax calculator to estimate the 2026 federal estate tax on an estate — gross estate, deductions, the $15 million exclusion, portability and prior gifts. It also answers "is my estate taxable?" with the Form 706 filing test.

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The formula

Federal estate tax — the Form 706 chain (IRC §2001, §2010)

Taxable estate     = gross estate − debts & expenses − marital deduction − charitable deduction
Tentative amount   = taxable estate + adjusted taxable gifts (post-1976)
Tentative tax      = §2001(c) schedule on the tentative amount (18 % … 40 % above $1,000,000)
Unified credit     = §2001(c) schedule on (basic exclusion + DSUE)   → $5,945,800 on $15,000,000
Federal estate tax = max(0, tentative tax − gift tax paid on prior gifts − unified credit)

The schedule reaches its 40 % top rate at $1,000,000, so for any estate that owes tax the result collapses to 40 % of the amount above the applicable exclusion: 40 % × ($19,000,000 − $15,000,000) = $1,600,000 for the default $20 million estate. The basic exclusion ($15,000,000 for 2026, Rev. Proc. 2025-32) and the schedule are read from the dataset for the selected year, never typed into the page.

Calculating it by hand

  1. Add up the gross estate at date-of-death value: real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, plus (under Advanced) life insurance the decedent owned, business interests and other property.
  2. Subtract debts, mortgages, funeral and administration expenses (IRC §2053), then the marital deduction for what passes to a U.S.-citizen spouse (§2056) and any charitable bequests (§2055). That is the taxable estate.
  3. Add adjusted taxable gifts — the post-1976 gifts above the annual exclusion reported on prior Forms 709 — to get the tentative taxable amount.
  4. Run that amount through the §2001(c) unified rate schedule: $345,800 on the first $1,000,000, then 40 % of the rest.
  5. Subtract any gift tax actually paid on those prior gifts, then the unified credit — the schedule run on the applicable exclusion ($15,000,000, plus a deceased spouse's DSUE if portability was elected). What is left, if anything, is the federal estate tax.
  6. Check the filing test: Form 706 is required when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the basic exclusion — even if the marital deduction brings the tax to zero.

Worked examples

The defaults: a $20 million estate, single decedent

  1. Enter real estate $8,000,000, accounts $9,500,000, retirement accounts $2,500,000: gross estate $20,000,000.
  2. Debts and expenses $500,000, marital deduction $0, charitable deduction $500,000: taxable estate $19,000,000. No prior gifts, so the tentative taxable amount is also $19,000,000.
  3. Tentative tax: $345,800 + 40 % × ($19,000,000 − $1,000,000) = $7,545,800.
  4. Unified credit on the $15,000,000 exclusion: $345,800 + 40 % × $14,000,000 = $5,945,800.
  5. Federal estate tax: $7,545,800 − $5,945,800 = $1,600,000 — the same as 40 % × ($19,000,000 − $15,000,000). Effective rate on the gross estate: $1,600,000 ÷ $20,000,000 = 8.00 %. Form 706: required.

Federal estate tax $1,600,000 · effective rate 8.00 % · 40 % only on the $4,000,000 above the exclusion

Below the exclusion: a $2.8 million estate (most estates)

  1. Enter real estate $2,000,000, accounts $800,000, retirement $0: gross estate $2,800,000. Debts $150,000, charitable $0: taxable estate $2,650,000.
  2. Tentative tax on $2,650,000: $345,800 + 40 % × $1,650,000 = $1,005,800.
  3. Unified credit: $5,945,800 — larger than the tentative tax, so the tax is $0 and $12,350,000 of exclusion goes unused.
  4. Filing test: $2,800,000 is below $15,000,000, so no Form 706 is required — unless the executor files one to pass the unused exclusion to a surviving spouse.

Federal estate tax $0 · Form 706 not required · the estate is $12,200,000 below the filing threshold

Portability: a $20 million estate with a $6 million DSUE

  1. Enter real estate $20,000,000 and set every other asset and deduction to $0: taxable estate $20,000,000. Tentative tax: $345,800 + 40 % × $19,000,000 = $7,945,800.
  2. Under Advanced, set portability to Yes and the DSUE to $6,000,000: applicable exclusion $15,000,000 + $6,000,000 = $21,000,000.
  3. Unified credit on $21,000,000: $345,800 + 40 % × $20,000,000 = $8,345,800.
  4. Federal estate tax: max(0, $7,945,800 − $8,345,800) = $0. Without the DSUE the same estate would owe 40 % × $5,000,000 = $2,000,000.
  5. Form 706 is still required: the $20,000,000 gross estate exceeds the $15,000,000 basic exclusion (the DSUE does not raise the filing threshold).

Federal estate tax $0 · the first spouse's unused $6,000,000 saves $2,000,000 · Form 706 required

Methodology

How the federal estate tax is calculated

The 40 % rate is real, but it only ever touches the slice of an estate above the exclusion — and the exclusion is $15 million per person in 2026. Most of what people fear about the estate tax comes from applying 40 % to the whole estate.

Read sources and limits

What an estate tax calculator works out

An estate tax calculator estimates the federal estate tax on an estate by adding up the gross estate at date-of-death value, subtracting debts, the marital deduction and charitable bequests, adding back prior taxable gifts, applying the IRC §2001(c) rate schedule and subtracting the unified credit on the $15,000,000 exclusion — the chain an executor follows on Form 706.

The order matters. Deductions come off before the rate schedule is applied, prior taxable gifts are added back so the estate lands in the right bracket, and the exclusion arrives last — as a credit against the tax, not as a deduction from the estate. Because the schedule is already at its 40 % top rate by $1,000,000, the credit on $15,000,000 ($5,945,800) exactly cancels the tax on the first $15,000,000, and every dollar above it is taxed at 40 %.

How much is estate tax on a $20 million estate?

Take the calculator's defaults: $8,000,000 of real estate, $9,500,000 in accounts and $2,500,000 in retirement plans make a $20,000,000 gross estate. After $500,000 of debts and expenses and a $500,000 charitable bequest, the taxable estate is $19,000,000. The tentative tax on that is $345,800 + 40 % × $18,000,000 = $7,545,800; the unified credit is $5,945,800; the federal estate tax is $1,600,000.

That is 8.0 % of the gross estate, not 40 %. The marginal rate on the last dollar is 40 %, but the first $15,000,000 of taxable estate carries no tax at all, so the effective rate climbs slowly: a $17 million taxable estate pays $800,000 (4.7 %), a $25 million one pays $4,000,000 (16 %), and only a very large estate approaches the headline rate.

Leave $19,000,000 of that same estate to a spouse instead and the marital deduction takes the taxable estate to $500,000 and the tax to $0 — but the gross estate still exceeds the exclusion, so Form 706 must be filed. Whether to make elections on that return (portability above all) is where the professional work begins.

What is the estate tax exemption for 2026?

The basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 per person for 2026, set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and indexed for inflation from 2027 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32). Before that law, the exclusion was scheduled to fall to roughly $7 million on 1 January 2026 when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubling expired; the OBBBA made the higher figure permanent and removed the "clawback" worry for large gifts made under it.

The exclusion is unified with the gift tax: every taxable gift made during life uses part of it, which is why prior taxable gifts are added back into the estate computation. A person who gave away $2,000,000 above the annual exclusions over their lifetime has $13,000,000 of exclusion left for the estate — in the calculator, adding $2,000,000 of adjusted taxable gifts to the defaults raises the tax from $1,600,000 to $2,400,000, exactly 40 % of the exclusion the gifts consumed.

For a married couple the practical exclusion is $30,000,000 through portability. When the first spouse dies, the executor can elect on Form 706 to pass the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) to the survivor; the calculator's Advanced section adds it to the basic exclusion. With a $6,000,000 DSUE the applicable exclusion is $21,000,000 and the credit $8,345,800, which wipes out the $7,945,800 tentative tax on a $20,000,000 estate. The election requires a return even when no tax is due; a late election is possible for up to five years under Rev. Proc. 2022-32.

Is my estate taxable? The Form 706 filing test

Tax due and return due are separate questions. Under IRC §6018 a Form 706 is required when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the basic exclusion amount — $15,000,000 for a death in 2026 — regardless of the marital or charitable deductions. The calculator shows this test as its own result so an estate that owes nothing because everything passed to a spouse still sees "Form 706: required".

The return is due nine months after the date of death, with an automatic six-month extension on Form 4768. Executors of smaller estates file only to elect portability. Every asset on the return must be valued at fair market value as of the date of death (or the alternate valuation date six months later), which for real estate, closely held businesses and collectibles means qualified appraisals — the single largest source of difference between this estimate and the figure on a filed return.

Federal estate tax, state estate tax and inheritance tax

Three different taxes share the name. The federal estate tax is paid by the estate before anything is distributed. Twelve states and the District of Columbia — Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — levy their own estate tax, most with exemptions far below the federal one — from about $1 million in Oregon to just over $7 million in New York, with only Connecticut matching the federal figure — at graduated rates whose top brackets run from 12 % to Washington's 35 %. Five states — Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — levy an inheritance tax instead, paid by each heir at a rate that depends on their relationship to the decedent (Iowa's ended for deaths after 2024; Maryland has both).

This page carries no state table: it computes the federal tax and lets you add your own state's exemption and a single rate under Advanced, which it labels as an approximation because real state schedules are graduated. At 16 % above a $2,000,000 exemption, the default $19,000,000 taxable estate would carry a state estimate of $2,720,000 — a reminder that for residents of those states the state tax can exceed the federal one. Inheritance tax, being a tax on the heir, is not modelled at all.

What this estate tax calculator leaves out

It does not compute the generation-skipping transfer tax, special-use valuation for farms and family businesses (§2032A), the instalment election for closely held business interests (§6166), QTIP or other marital-deduction elections, the §2035 three-year look-back that pulls recently transferred life insurance back into the estate, or the deduction for income in respect of a decedent that heirs of a taxed IRA can claim on their own returns. The gift-tax credit is the figure you enter from prior Forms 709 rather than a recomputation at historical rates.

A result from this page is the right order of magnitude for planning and for deciding whether to involve an estate attorney or CPA — which, for any estate near the exclusion, is the next step. See the gift tax calculator for how lifetime gifts use the same exclusion, and the capital gains tax calculator for the stepped-up basis heirs receive on inherited assets.

Estate Tax questions

How much do you have to have to pay estate tax in 2026?

More than $15,000,000 of taxable estate plus lifetime taxable gifts — the 2026 basic exclusion amount under IRC §2010 as adjusted by Rev. Proc. 2025-32. Below that, the unified credit cancels the whole tentative tax. The figure is per person, so a married couple using portability can pass $30,000,000 free of federal estate tax. State estate taxes start far lower, from about $1 million in Oregon and Massachusetts's $2 million upward.

What is the federal estate tax rate?

The IRC §2001(c) schedule runs from 18 % on the first $10,000 to 40 % on everything above $1,000,000 — but because the exclusion is credited after the schedule, any estate that owes tax pays exactly 40 % of the amount above its exclusion and nothing on the rest. The calculator's default $20 million estate pays $1,600,000, an effective rate of 8 % on the gross estate; a $17 million taxable estate pays $800,000, or 4.7 %.

How is estate tax calculated?

In five steps on Form 706: gross estate at fair-market value; minus debts, administration expenses, the marital deduction and charitable bequests to get the taxable estate; plus adjusted taxable gifts made after 1976; the §2001(c) schedule on that total ($345,800 plus 40 % of the amount over $1,000,000); minus gift tax paid on the prior gifts and minus the unified credit of $5,945,800 (the schedule run on the $15,000,000 exclusion). This calculator shows every step in its computation table.

What is the estate tax exemption for a married couple?

Effectively $30,000,000 in 2026 — two $15,000,000 exclusions — provided the first spouse's executor elects portability on a Form 706. Everything left to a U.S.-citizen spouse is also deductible without limit under IRC §2056, so the tax is usually reckoned at the second death. A $20,000,000 estate with a $6,000,000 DSUE from the first spouse owes $0 in the calculator; without the election it would owe $2,000,000.

What is portability in estate tax?

Portability (IRC §2010(c)(5)) lets a surviving spouse add the deceased spousal unused exclusion — the DSUE amount — to their own basic exclusion. If the first spouse's estate used $6,000,000 of a $15,000,000 exclusion, the remaining $9,000,000 can be ported, giving the survivor $24,000,000. The executor must file Form 706 to elect it even when no tax is due; a late election is allowed for up to five years after death under Rev. Proc. 2022-32.

Do I have to file Form 706 if no tax is due?

Yes, when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds $15,000,000 for a 2026 death (IRC §6018), even if the marital deduction brings the tax to zero — a $20,000,000 estate left entirely to a spouse still files. Below that threshold a return is optional and is filed only to elect portability. The due date is nine months after death, extendable six months on Form 4768.

Do gifts I made during my life count toward the estate tax?

Taxable gifts do — the amounts above the annual exclusion ($19,000 per recipient in 2026) reported on Forms 709. They are added back to the taxable estate as "adjusted taxable gifts" so the estate uses the exclusion those gifts consumed: adding $2,000,000 of prior taxable gifts to the calculator's defaults raises the tax from $1,600,000 to $2,400,000. Gifts within the annual exclusion, direct tuition and medical payments, and gifts to a spouse never count.

Does the estate tax apply to 401(k) and IRA accounts?

Yes — retirement accounts are in the gross estate at their date-of-death balance even though they pass by beneficiary designation rather than through probate (Form 706 Schedule I). The beneficiary later pays income tax on withdrawals as well; where estate tax was paid on the account, IRC §691(c) gives the heir an income-tax deduction for the estate tax attributable to it, which softens the double tax.

Is life insurance included in the gross estate?

The death benefit is included if the decedent owned the policy or held any "incident of ownership" — the right to change the beneficiary, borrow against it or surrender it (IRC §2042). A policy held by an irrevocable life insurance trust is outside the estate, but only if it was transferred more than three years before death (§2035). Enter owned policies at their face value under Advanced.

Which states have an estate tax or an inheritance tax?

For 2026, twelve states and DC levy an estate tax: Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, with exemptions from about $1 million (Oregon) to just over $7 million (New York); only Connecticut matches the federal figure. Five states levy an inheritance tax on the heir — Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — and Maryland has both. Iowa's inheritance tax ended for deaths after 31 December 2024. This page holds no state table; enter your state's exemption and rate under Advanced.

What is the difference between estate tax and inheritance tax?

Who pays and on what. An estate tax is paid by the estate on its total value before distribution; the federal government and twelve states plus DC levy one. An inheritance tax is paid by each heir on what they receive, at a rate set by their relationship to the deceased — spouses and often children are exempt, distant relatives and friends pay the most. There is no federal inheritance tax, and inherited money is not income for federal income tax purposes.

How did the One Big Beautiful Bill Act change the estate tax?

It fixed the basic exclusion at $15,000,000 for 2026, indexed for inflation after that, instead of letting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubling expire — which would have cut the exclusion to roughly $7 million on 1 January 2026. The rate schedule, the 40 % top rate, portability and the marital deduction were unchanged. The dataset behind this page records the figure with its source and verification date for each tax year.

Source notes

Method, sources & limitations

Every figure on this page comes from the formula above applied to the values you enter. Nothing is estimated from market data, and no result is a forecast. These are the sources behind the method and any fixed figures it uses:

Written and maintained by CalculatorManager Editorial, Editorial team. Figures last verified .

Educational information only. Results are estimates produced from the assumptions you enter, and are not financial, tax, legal or medical advice. Check anything that matters against a qualified professional and the cited sources.

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