Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: after a death, a set of clocks starts running that nobody tells the family about — and several are use-it-or-lose-it. The unforgiving ones: 9 months to disclaim an inheritance (no extensions), 9 months to file the estate tax return, 6 months for the alternate-valuation snapshot, and a cluster of inherited-retirement-account dates in the following calendar year. Enter the date of death and get the actual calendar:
The calculator
The three deadlines families actually miss
The disclaimer window closes first in practice — because using it requires knowing it exists. A disclaimer is the only post-death planning tool that can redirect an inheritance (to the next beneficiary in line) with no gift-tax consequence, and it dies quietly at nine months — or the moment the heir accepts a benefit from the asset. The rules, plainly.
Portability is the expensive one. A surviving spouse who skips the estate tax return because “we’re under the exemption” forfeits the deceased spouse’s unused exemption — potentially millions of sheltered dollars — unless the simplified late election window is used. Why it is not automatic.
The year-of-death RMD rule changed in 2024 and most articles still state the old one. The current deadline.
The state-law clocks — probate filing and creditor claim windows — run on separate, state-specific schedules; the cost side is at probate cost by state and the executor fee calculator.
The calendar is the easy part. The decisions on it are not.
Whether to disclaim, whether to file for portability, when to take the year-of-death RMD – each date above carries a decision. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. It asks about nine questions — age, investable assets, location — then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text.
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. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
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The number that surprises people who bought a long time ago
Downsizing is the one home sale where the gain is usually large and the exclusion usually still covers it. A couple who bought in 1994 for $180,000 and sell at $760,000 with $46,000 of selling costs have a realized gain of about $534,000 before improvements. That is above the $500,000 joint cap — but decades of capital improvements are exactly what brings it back under, and most sellers have never added them up.
Improvements are the lever, and the records are the constraint
A new roof, an addition, a replaced HVAC system, new windows, a finished basement: these add to basis. Repainting and repairs do not. Thirty years of improvements on a family home routinely total six figures, and every dollar of it reduces the gain dollar for dollar. The practical problem is documentary, not legal — the seller who kept receipts pays less than the identical seller who did not.
Why downsizers should check the net investment income tax separately
A retiree with modest ordinary income can still be pushed over the 3.8 percent NIIT threshold by the sale itself, because taxable gain is net investment income. The thresholds are $250,000 on a joint return and $200,000 otherwise, written into Section 1411(b) as fixed figures with no indexing. A sale that produces $120,000 of taxable gain on top of $180,000 of other income crosses the joint threshold and picks up 3.8 percent on the part above it.
The move itself may change the tax
Downsizing usually means moving, and sometimes across a state line. Some states tax the gain the federal exclusion just removed. If the sale and the move are in the same year, the order of the two matters, and it is worth checking the destination state before signing.
Related
Methodology
- Exclusion caps, the 2-of-5 test, the nonqualified-use allocation, the reduced-exclusion fraction and the depreciation carve-out are taken from the text of 26 U.S.C. 121. The 3.8 percent rate and its thresholds are from 26 U.S.C. 1411. Both were read on 2026-07-30.
- Section 121 caps and Section 1411 thresholds are written in the statute as fixed dollar amounts with no indexing mechanism, so they are built in. Long-term capital gain brackets ARE indexed annually, so your rate is an input rather than a lookup.
- Figures were computed by two independently written engines that agree to the cent, and the calculator on this page reproduces both exactly.
- Federal only. State treatment varies and some states do not follow the federal exclusion.
Educational estimate, not tax advice, and not a filed return. Federal only. Confirm anything that changes a filing decision with a CPA or tax attorney.
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