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Estate Tax by State (2026): Exemptions, Rates, and the Sunset That Didn’t Happen

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Compare the state landscape

Jump to the rules, exceptions and state-level evidence.

Inheritance tax by stateOpen this related section of the library.Retirement taxes by stateOpen this related section of the library.Probate cost by stateOpen this related section of the library.Estate planning costsOpen this related section of the library.will-vs-trust breakeven calculatorOpen this related section of the library.Affiliate DisclosureOpen this related section of the library.

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Updated August 7, 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.

IRS estate-administration forms, read line by line: Form 706-NA, Form 706-NA Part II lines 1 to 8 and Form 706-NA Part IV.

Form 1041 (estate and trust income tax return), read line by line: Form 1041 header items A to G, Form 1041 lines 10 to 12, Form 1041 lines 13 and 14 and Form 1041 lines 15a to 17.

Form 709 (gift tax return), read line by line: Form 709 Part I lines 1 to 21, Form 709 Part II lines 1 to 12, Form 709 Schedule C and Form 709 Schedule D.

Form 706 (estate tax return), read line by line: Form 706 Schedule D life insurance, Form 706 Schedule E jointly owned property, Form 706 Schedule F other miscellaneous property and Form 706 Schedule G lifetime transfers.

Related reading on this site: Form 706 due date and extension.

More IRS forms and schedules, read line by line: Form 706 instructions.

The 2027 estate tax exemption in each state that levies one, from the state’s own tax documents: Connecticut estate tax exemption 2027, Hawaii estate tax exemption 2027, Illinois estate tax exemption 2027, Maine estate tax exemption 2027, Maryland estate tax exemption 2027, Massachusetts estate tax exemption 2027, Minnesota estate tax exemption 2027, New York estate tax exemption 2027, Oregon estate tax exemption 2027, Rhode Island estate tax exemption 2027, Vermont estate tax exemption 2027, Washington estate tax exemption 2027 and Washington, D.C. estate tax exemption 2027.

State by state, whether a gift is taxed by the state itself: gift tax by state.

Put your own estate through the Attorney General’s method: Illinois estate tax calculator.

Related guides on this topic: Tennessee Executor Bond Requirement.

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

Does your state have an estate tax? These states do not, and each page cites the state’s own documents: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado and Delaware.

More states with no estate tax: Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas.

And: Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Montana.

Still more states with no estate tax, each page citing the state’s own documents: Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and North Dakota.

And more: Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee.

And finally: Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

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

Jurisdiction2026 estate tax (exemption and rates)Recent changesKey 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, limited so the tax cannot exceed 40% of the amount over $4M after the tax itself is deducted; $4,000,001 owes $0 and $5,000,000 owes $285,714); 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 (indexed annually again from 2027 under RCW 83.100.020(1)(a)(xi); the Department of Revenue table still lists $3,000,000 for 2027). Rates: 10% to a top rate of 35% (on taxable amount over $9,000,000) for deaths 7/1/2025 through 6/30/2026; for deaths on/after 7/1/2026 the schedule is 10% to a top rate of 20% (over $9,000,000) under RCW 83.100.040(2)(a)(iii), Laws of 2026, ch. 209. MAJOR: Laws of 2026, ch. 209 (ESB 6347, approved March 24, 2026) restored the 10% to 20% rate table for deaths on/after 7/1/2026, set the exclusion at $3,000,000 from that date and provides for annual indexing again from 2027 (RCW 83.100.020(1)(a)(xi)). Before that, ESSB 5813 (Laws of 2025, ch. 421) 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% for deaths 7/1/2025 through 6/30/2026 (that Table W had 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 2026, ch. 209 (ESB 6347); Laws of 2025, ch. 421 (ESSB 5813)
Where each of the thirteen state estate taxes begins in 2026, against the federal exclusionThirteen horizontal bars on a single dollar axis running from zero to $15,000,000. Oregon begins lowest at $1,000,000 and Connecticut highest at $15,000,000, which is the federal basic exclusion amount itself. Seven of the thirteen are dollar amounts written into the jurisdiction’s own statute, five are recomputed every year, and Hawaii’s is frozen to the federal figure for 2017.Thirteen state lines, and the federal oneWhere each 2026 estate tax begins, on onedollar axis. The federal basic exclusion amountis $15,000,000; twelve of the thirteen begin ator below $7,350,000.Each jurisdiction’s own statute or revenuedepartment, read August 2026.a dollar amount written into the statuterecomputed every yearfrozen to a past federal yearOregon — $1,000,000Rhode Island — $1,838,056Massachusetts — $2,000,000Minnesota — $3,000,000Washington — $3,076,000$3,076,000 to June 30, then $3,000,000; indexed again from2027Illinois — $4,000,000no cliff: tax builds above $4m, about 28.6 centsper added dollarDistrict of Columbia — $4,988,400Maryland — $5,000,000Vermont — $5,000,000Hawaii — $5,490,000the 2017 federal figure, held by reference since 2018Maine — $7,160,000New York — $7,350,000above 105% of the line – $7,717,500 – the exclusion is lostentirelyConnecticut — $15,000,000tied by statute to the federal amount, so the two movetogether$0$5m$10m$15mthe dashed line is the federal basic exclusion amount,$15,000,000 — Connecticut’s is the same number by statuteSources, read August 2026: ORS 118.010(4); R.I. Gen. Laws44-22-1.1(a)(4) and the RI Division of Taxation; M.G.L. c.65C2A; Minn. Stat. 291.016; RCW 83.100.020(1)(a); 35 ILCS405/2(b); D.C. Code 47-3701(14) and the OTR 2026 D-76booklet; Md. Code Tax-Gen. 7-309(b); 32 V.S.A. 7442a; Haw.Rev. Stat. 236E-6(a) with Rev. Proc. 2016-55 section 3.35; 36M.R.S. 4102(5) and 4119 with Maine Revenue Services; N.Y. TaxLaw 952(c) with the NY Department of Taxation and Finance;Conn. Gen. Stat. 12-391(g); and IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32section 2.14.
Figure 1. Every 2026 figure here was read this month from the jurisdiction’s own statute or revenue department, and each one also has to match this page’s table above or the chart does not build. The three fills are a real distinction, not a style: seven of the thirteen are a dollar amount written into the statute itself and move only when a legislature moves them; five are recomputed every year and appear nowhere in the statute — Rhode Island’s is a credit of $64,400 indexed since 2016, the District’s is a zero-bracket amount, New York’s is $5,000,000 indexed from 2010, Maine’s is $5,600,000 indexed from 2017, and Connecticut’s is simply whatever the federal amount is; and Hawaii’s is neither, because Haw. Rev. Stat. 236E-6(a)(3) sets it to the credit a decedent dying on December 31, 2017 would have had, which is $5,490,000 and stays there. One caution the bars cannot carry: the thirteen are not all measured against the same thing — eleven are read against a taxable estate after deductions, while the District’s and Rhode Island’s published 2026 figures are the size of gross estate at which a return becomes due — so these are the lines each jurisdiction draws, not thirteen figures that can be compared to the dollar.

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

Thirteen jurisdictions tax estates, and the thresholds start at $1,000,000.

Most of the country levies no estate tax at all, so whether any of this reaches you is decided almost entirely by where you are domiciled and where your property sits. If your estate is near a line in one of the thirteen, the questions that follow are about residency, situs property and structure, and they are worth putting to someone who prices them for a living.

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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. And where a sale is part of the move — a house, a long-held taxable account — a fifth changes with them: the state layer on a long-term capital gain, charged at ordinary-income rates in 29 of the 51 jurisdictions and at a preferential rate in 13.

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 Illinois’s $4M estate tax threshold.

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.

How many of the thirteen state estate tax thresholds an estate of a given size is aboveA step chart. The horizontal axis is the size of the estate from zero to $16 million; the vertical axis counts how many of the thirteen state thresholds that estate is above. The count is zero up to $1,000,000, two at $2 million, ten at $5.5 million and twelve at $10 million, and it stays at twelve until the estate passes $15,000,000, which is both Connecticut's line and the federal basic exclusion amount.How many of those lines an estate isactually aboveThe same thirteen thresholds, counted from thereader's side. An estate crosses twelve statelines before it reaches the federal one.Counted strictly: each jurisdiction taxes onlythe amount above its own figure.0481213$1m: none of the thirteen$2m: two$5.5m: ten$10m: twelvefederal: $15,000,000$0$4m$8m$12m$16msize of the estateBuilt from the same thirteen thresholds as figure 1, countedstrictly: an estate exactly at a jurisdiction's figure is notabove it, because every one of these taxes reaches only theamount over the line.
Figure 2. The same thirteen lines, read the way a reader meets them. This is the page's own sentence drawn: below $1,000,000 no US state estate tax applies anywhere, and below roughly $2,000,000 only Oregon and Rhode Island reach at all — the chart is built by counting the thresholds, so if either statement stopped being true the figure would not build. The tall step just under $5,000,000 is three jurisdictions inside $12,000 of each other: the District at $4,988,400, then Maryland and Vermont at $5,000,000. Two things the count deliberately does not claim. It is a count of lines crossed, not of tax owed, and it is not a residency test: Oregon's statute reaches a non-resident decedent who owned real property in Oregon (ORS 118.010(2)(b)) and Rhode Island's taxes “every resident or nonresident decedent” (R.I. Gen. Laws 44-22-1.1(a)(4)), so an estate can be above a line it never lived behind. And the thirteen are not measured on one common base, which is why this counts crossings rather than adding anything up.

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.

Changelog correction, 7 August 2026. This page displayed an earlier “Updated” date than its last material change. The date is now correct. The cause was structural rather than careless: our edit discipline replaces a table or appends sections in place so that earlier verified work survives, and it was preserving the dateline along with it. On a page whose value is being current, that understates the very thing readers came for — so the rule now is that any change to a tracker updates its date in the same operation.

How this page is kept current

What moves it: Annual indexation plus legislative sessions. Several state exemptions are inflation-adjusted each year, and the rest move only when a session changes them.

What we do not promise. There is no automated watcher behind this page. What exists is a dated register of changes we already know are coming, checked at every batch close rather than waited on, plus a re-read whenever we touch the page for another reason. We would rather describe that plainly than claim a monitoring cadence we do not run — a tracker that overstates its own maintenance is the thing this page class exists to avoid.

Free to reuse with attribution under CC BY 4.0.

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 20% from July 1, 2026) · 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%) · Washington, D.C. · plus the 2026 changes roundup.

Put your own numbers through it

The tables above give each state’s exemption and rate. The estate tax calculator takes those two figures plus your estate value, any exemption ported from a deceased spouse, and lifetime gifts already used, and returns the federal and state exposure separately — which is the split that matters, because an estate can owe nothing federally and still owe a state.

Citing these numbers? The 2026 exemption and jurisdiction counts from this table are formatted for quick citation at retirement tax statistics. Free to use with a link.

Keeping the house out of probate (not the same as out of the estate): 35 jurisdictions let real property pass by a simple recorded deed — the statute-verified list is at transfer-on-death deed states, including the false Florida claim most articles repeat.

The federal side has deadlines the state tables don’t show: Form 706 at nine months (extension extends filing, not payment), the six-month alternate valuation date, and the rest of the calendar at the deadlines calculator.

The 2026 gift figures, from the source: $19,000 per recipient per year with no return to file ($38,000 from a couple), against a lifetime exclusion of $15 million per person. Tuition and medical bills paid directly to the institution are unlimited and are not gifts at all.

What these exemptions mean at ordinary estate sizes. Every exemption on this page starts at $1,000,000 or above, so at a $250,000, $500,000 or $1,000,000 estate the number of states charging estate tax is zero — the computed index shows what is charged instead.

The federal basic exclusion rose to $15,000,000 for 2026 under OBBBA — the 2026 federal picture these state figures sit inside.

Estate tax is one of six dimensions that decide a retirement move — how estate tax sits beside the other state dimensions.

Where a state threshold bites, one structure exists specifically to keep a policy out of the taxable estate — what an ILIT does, and when it is overkill.

All the numbers, kept current. This page uses 7 figures from our claims register — every figure we track is on one page, each with the year it applies to and a plain statement of what makes it move.

See whether an adviser match is worth comparing