Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Vermont taxes the estates of residents, and Vermont-situs property of nonresidents, above a flat $5,000,000 exclusion at a single 16% rate on the excess, with no bracket structure and no portability for surviving spouses. A $6,000,000 gross estate owes $160,000.
2026 exemption: $5,000,000 · Top rate: 16% flat (not graduated) on the Vermont taxable estate above $5,000,000 · Key statute: 32 V.S.A. sec. 7442a
Filing deadline: nine months, and an extension that does not buy time to pay
Form EST-191, the Vermont Estate Tax Return, is due nine months after the date of death. A six-month extension is available on Form EST-195, but an extension of time to file the return does not extend the time to pay; the tax estimated to be due must be paid with the extension request.
Genuinely flat, not a bracket or cliff
Vermont’s statute imposes tax as 16 percent of the excess over $5,000,000, a single flat rate on the amount above the exclusion rather than a graduated bracket schedule. There is no cliff effect either; only the dollars above $5,000,000 are taxed, so an estate at $5,000,001 owes roughly sixteen cents in tax, not tax on the full estate.
Non-residents: Vermont-situs property only, apportioned by formula
Vermont collects tax on the transfer of a Vermont estate of resident and nonresident deceased persons. For a nonresident decedent, only Vermont-situs real estate and tangible personal property count toward the Vermont gross estate; intangible personal property is included only if the decedent is a Vermont resident. The statute apportions the computed tax using a fraction with the value of the Vermont gross estate as the numerator over the federal gross estate as the denominator.
A flat 16% above $5,000,000, and nothing carries to a spouse.
A $6,000,000 estate owes $160,000. Vermont has no bracket structure to soften the edge and no portability, so a married couple’s plan has to use each exclusion while both are still available to use.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here, and you stay on this page.
What happens when you press the button
It asks about nine questions (age, investable assets, location), then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
No portability between spouses
Neither the statutory text nor the Department of Taxes' Form EST-191 instructions nor the main estate tax page contain any provision letting a surviving spouse claim a deceased spouse's unused exclusion. That silence, consistent across every official source checked this session, is the basis for concluding Vermont has no portability mechanism, though no source states the absence explicitly.
The math on a $6,000,000 estate
Tax owed: $160,000. $6,000,000 gross estate minus $5,000,000 exclusion equals $1,000,000 taxable excess. $1,000,000 times 16% equals $160,000 owed.
Honest gaps
The statute’s official text could not be loaded directly from the Vermont Legislature’s own site, which failed to answer securely on two attempts, so the flat-rate and apportionment language rely on Justia’s reproduction rather than the .gov original. The precise legislative vehicle behind the 2026 filing-threshold change could not be confirmed to a specific bill number.
Source note. Read from https://tax.vermont.gov/instructions/form-EST-191; https://law.justia.com/codes/vermont/title-32/chapter-190/section-7442a/; https://tax.vermont.gov/individuals/estate-tax on 2026-09-04.
Related: estate tax by state · who actually pays the estate tax · the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption.
Statutory text read at each state's own department of revenue or legislature. General information, not legal or tax advice; exemptions, rates and filing rules change, and a qualified estate or tax professional should confirm the current figures before you rely on them.