Name: State Estate Taxes 2026
Creator: Clear Money Guide
License: https://clearmoneyguide.com/data/

Updated July 23, 2026. Quick answer: The federal estate-tax “sunset” everyone planned around never happened — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act set the federal exemption at $15,000,000 per person for 2026 (about $30M per married couple), permanent and inflation-indexed from 2027, instead of the reversion to roughly $7M that older articles still describe. State taxes are now where estates actually get taxed: 13 jurisdictions levy their own estate tax in 2026 with exemptions as low as $1 million (Oregon), 5 states levy an inheritance tax, Maryland levies both, and 34 states levy neither. Every figure below is statute-cited and was verified against primary sources in July 2026.

Fast routes: Inheritance tax by state | Retirement taxes by state | Probate cost by state | Estate planning costs

The 2026 federal baseline: the sunset that didn’t happen

2026 federal estate tax: basic exclusion amount $15,000,000 per decedent ($30M per married couple via portability), top rate 40% (IRC sec. 2001(c)). The scheduled TCJA sunset (reversion to ~$7M) DID NOT occur: One Big Beautiful Bill Act sec. 70106 (P.L. 119-21, signed 7/4/2025) amended IRC sec. 2010(c)(3) to set the BEA at $15,000,000 for 2026, permanent with no sunset, inflation-indexed from 2027 (2025 base year). Confirmed by IRS: “IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026, including amendments from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill” (irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2026-including-amendments-from-the-one-big-beautiful-bill) and Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf): “Estates of decedents who die during 2026 have a basic exclusion amount of $15,000,000, up from $13,990,000 for estates of decedents who died in 2025.”

Practical consequence: far fewer estates owe federal tax than pre-2025 planning assumed — but the state thresholds below start as low as $1 million, which ordinary home equity plus retirement accounts can reach. If your estate clears your state’s line, that is a planning conversation, not a form-filing surprise.

The 13 jurisdictions with an estate tax in 2026

Jurisdiction	2026 estate tax (exemption and rates)	Recent changes	Key statutes
Connecticut	yes – 2026 exemption $15,000,000 (statutorily tied to the federal basic exclusion amount); flat 12% rate on the excess; total tax capped at $15M; CT also levies the only state gift tax (unified with estate)	Exemption rose automatically from $13.99M (2025) to $15M (2026) because CT tracks the federal BEA, which OBBBA set at $15M for 2026	Conn. Gen. Stat. sec. 12-391(g)
District of Columbia	yes – 2026 zero-bracket (exemption) $4,988,400, up from $4,873,200 in 2025 (CPI-indexed annually); rates 11.2%-16%	OTR notice of Oct 1, 2025 tax changes announced the 2026 exclusion of $4,988,400 for deaths 1/1/2026-12/31/2026	D.C. Code sec. 47-3701(14); D.C. Code sec. 47-3702
Hawaii	yes – exemption $5,490,000 (fixed since 2018, not indexed); rates 10%-20% (top 20% on taxable amount over $10M above the exemption); Hawaii-level portability between spouses allowed	none	Haw. Rev. Stat. sec. 236E-6; Haw. Rev. Stat. sec. 236E-8
Illinois	yes – $4,000,000 exclusion (not indexed, not a true exemption: estates over $4M are taxed using the pre-2001 federal state-death-tax-credit table on the full taxable estate); effective marginal rates commonly stated as 0.8%-16%; administered by the IL Attorney General	None enacted 2024-2026. Family Farm Preservation Act (SB 1688 / HB 2677) proposing a $6M CPI-indexed exemption for qualified farm estates remains a bill only as of July 2026 (still on Illinois Farm Bureau’s 2026 legislative priorities)	35 ILCS 405/2(b); 35 ILCS 405/3
Maine	yes – 2026 exclusion $7,160,000 (2025: $7,000,000; 2024: $6,800,000; indexed annually); rates 8% / 10% / 12% (top 12%)	Annual inflation indexing only ($7.0M 2025 -> $7.16M 2026, per Maine Revenue Services FAQ). LD 1617 (cut exclusion to $1M + farm/fishing/wood-harvesting exclusion) NOT enacted	36 M.R.S. sec. 4102(5); 36 M.R.S. sec. 4103; 36 M.R.S. sec. 4119
Maryland	yes (BOTH taxes – only state) – estate tax exemption $5,000,000 (fixed since 2019, not indexed); graduated rates up to 16%; Maryland-only portability of unused spousal exclusion allowed. Inheritance tax paid on a bequest is credited against estate tax	None enacted. Gov. Moore’s FY2026 budget proposals (repeal inheritance tax; cut estate exemption $5M -> $2M) were REJECTED – the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2025 (HB 352) left both taxes unchanged	Md. Code, Tax-Gen. sec. 7-309(b); Md. Code, Tax-Gen. sec. 7-203; Md. Code, Tax-Gen. sec. 7-204
Massachusetts	yes – $2,000,000 effective exemption via a $99,600 credit, for deaths on/after 1/1/2023; graduated rates 0.8%-16% (top 16%); no indexing	No 2024-2026 changes; current structure dates to St. 2023, c. 50 (Oct 2023), which doubled the threshold from $1M to $2M retroactive to deaths on/after 1/1/2023	M.G.L. c. 65C, sec. 2A (as amended by St. 2023, c. 50)
Minnesota	yes – $3,000,000 exclusion (unchanged since 2020, not indexed); rates 13%-16%; additional qualified small business / farm property deduction up to $2,000,000 (combined max $5,000,000). Official 2025 Form M706 instructions confirm: ‘For 2025 decedents, the exclusion amount and tax filing threshold is $3,000,000… maximum qualified small business property and farm property deduction amount is $2,000,000’	None enacted. CAUTION: spousal portability bills (SF 30 / SF 1271, 2025-26 session, effective for deaths after 6/30/2025 as drafted) were NOT enacted – the official 2025 M706 instructions (published Jan 2026) contain no portability provision, despite some aggregator sites claiming otherwise	Minn. Stat. sec. 291.016; Minn. Stat. sec. 291.03
New York	yes – 2026 basic exclusion amount $7,350,000 (deaths 1/1/2026-12/31/2026), up from $7,160,000 in 2025 (indexed annually); rates 3.06%-16% (top 16%); NOTE the ‘cliff’: taxable estates exceeding 105% of the BEA (~$7,717,500 in 2026) lose the entire exclusion and are taxed from dollar one	Annual indexing only: $7.16M (2025) -> $7.35M (2026), per NY Dept. of Taxation and Finance	N.Y. Tax Law sec. 952; N.Y. Tax Law sec. 951(a)
Oregon	yes – $1,000,000 filing threshold/exemption (lowest in the nation; fixed, not indexed); rates 10%-16% on the amount above $1M; no spousal portability; natural resource (farm/forestry/fishing) credit available under ORS 118.140	None enacted 2024-2026; bills/initiatives to raise the $1M exemption have repeatedly failed	ORS 118.010; ORS 118.160; ORS 118.140
Rhode Island	yes – 2026: net taxable estates of $1,838,056 or less exempt (credit $87,940), per RI Division of Taxation Advisory ADV 2025-27; up from $1,802,431 in 2025 (CPI-U indexed annually); rates 0.8%-16%	Annual CPI indexing only ($1,802,431 2025 -> $1,838,056 2026). Bills to raise the exemption to $5M-$10M and phase out the tax by 2033 are pending, NOT enacted	R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 44-22-1.1
Vermont	yes – $5,000,000 exclusion (since 2021, not indexed); flat 16% on the Vermont taxable estate above $5M. VT Dept. of Taxes: tax ‘is assessed only on the gross estate value exceeding $5 million’	none since the exclusion reached $5M in 2021	32 V.S.A. sec. 7442a
Washington	yes – 2026 applicable exclusion per WA DOR tables: $3,076,000 for deaths 1/1/2026-6/30/2026, then $3,000,000 for deaths on/after 7/1/2026 (no further increases due to an expired CPI reference in statute). Rates for deaths on/after 7/1/2025: 10% to a top rate of 35% (35% on taxable amount over $9,000,000) – the highest state estate tax rate in the U.S.	MAJOR: ESSB 5813 (Laws of 2025, ch. 418) raised the exclusion from $2,193,000 to $3,000,000 for deaths on/after 7/1/2025 and raised the top rate from 20% to 35% (new Table W brackets 10/15/17/19/23/26/30/35%); also increased the qualified family residence deduction. Prior exclusion had been frozen at $2,193,000 since 2018	RCW 83.100.040; RCW 83.100.020; Laws of 2025, ch. 418 (ESSB 5813)

States with NO estate or inheritance tax (34)

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. (Iowa belongs on this list as of 2025 — its inheritance tax was fully repealed for deaths on or after January 1, 2025.) An estate in these states can still owe federal tax above $15M, still pays probate costs, and can owe another state’s tax on real property located there.

Proposals that did NOT become law (where stale articles get it wrong)

Several widely reported 2025 proposals died or remain bills, and aggregator sites frequently report them as enacted: Minnesota’s spousal-portability bills (SF 30/SF 1271) are absent from the official 2025 M706 instructions; Illinois’s $6M family-farm exemption is still a bill; Maryland’s FY2026 proposal to repeal its inheritance tax and cut the estate exemption to $2M was rejected; Nebraska’s LB 468 inheritance-tax cut was not enacted; Rhode Island’s phase-out bills remain pending. We verified each against official instructions or legislative records in July 2026.

What to do if your estate is near a threshold

The levers are established: lifetime gifting, marital and charitable planning, trust structures, and — in percentage-fee probate states — simply keeping assets out of probate (see the will-vs-trust breakeven calculator). State estate tax interacts with income tax, basis step-up, and retirement-account planning, which is exactly where coordinated advice pays for itself; our estate planning cost guide shows what that help costs.

Near a state threshold? Get the numbers checked

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Cite this page: Clear Money Guide, “Estate Tax by State 2026,” compiled from state statutes and revenue-department sources, July 2026. https://clearmoneyguide.com/estate-tax-by-state/ — free to cite with attribution. Download the full dataset as CSV, or contact contact@clearmoneyguide.com for custom cuts.

Moving state? Four taxes change, not one

Most relocation comparisons price state income tax and stop. For a retiree, three others move at the same time — state estate tax, state inheritance tax, and what probate costs the people who inherit. Thirteen jurisdictions already exempt retirement-plan withdrawals entirely, so for those residents the income-tax saving from moving is exactly zero and the real money is at death. Corridor-by-corridor comparisons built from this same statute-cited dataset: retirement tax relocation.

Work out the number for your estate

Seven states publish a statutory percentage schedule, so probate cost there is arithmetic you can check — and in several of them the attorney and the personal representative are each entitled to the full amount, which doubles it. The probate cost calculator does that math for all 51 jurisdictions, cites the statute beside each result, and tells you whether your estate is small enough to skip full probate altogether.

Which states should you even consider?

Published “best states to retire” lists blend an annual income-tax rate with a one-off estate threshold into a single score, which produces a ranking that is true for nobody. The personalised ranker takes your withdrawals and estate value and orders all 51 jurisdictions for your situation instead — Illinois ranks third for a $300,000 estate and drops off the list entirely at $6,000,000, because of a $4M cliff no listicle mentions.

Does any of this apply to you?

Be honest with the arithmetic before you move for it. Below $1,000,000 no US state estate tax applies anywhere — Oregon has the lowest threshold in the country and that is where it begins. Below roughly $2,000,000 only Oregon and Rhode Island reach you at all. For the large majority of estates the entire “escape the death tax” argument is irrelevant, and the only thing a move changes is your annual income tax — which, if you are leaving one of the 13 jurisdictions that already exempt retirement withdrawals, is also zero.

Inheritance tax is the exception: Kentucky, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania charge the heir by relationship, and Pennsylvania does it from the first dollar with no threshold at all. Maryland is the only state that levies both. Test your own numbers with the comparison tool or the personalised ranker.

Estate tax is not probate cost

An estate tax is a tax on the transfer. Probate cost is what the court and the professionals take to administer it. They are set by different statutes and an estate can owe one without the other. What probate itself costs, per state:

Methodology

This page was materially reviewed on July 23, 2026. Exemptions, rates, and changes were compiled from state statutes, revenue-department publications, and enrolled acts, then independently spot-verified against primary sources (including Rev. Proc. 2025-32 for the federal figures); daggered rows note secondary sourcing. Nothing here is tax, legal, or personalized financial advice; state tax law changes every year and individual circumstances control — verify with the cited statute or a tax professional before acting. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.

Single-state deep dives: every estate-tax jurisdiction above now has a statute-cited guide combining its estate tax with retirement-income and probate rules: Washington ($3M, top rate 35%) · Oregon ($1M — the nation’s lowest threshold) · Minnesota · Illinois · Massachusetts · New York (the 105% cliff) · Maine · Connecticut ($15M federal tie-in) · Rhode Island (~$1.84M) · Vermont (flat 16%) · Maryland · Hawaii (top rate 20% — the nation’s highest) · Washington, D.C. · plus the 2026 changes roundup.