Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the federal estate tax return (Form 706) is due 9 months after the date of death. Form 4768 buys an automatic 6-month filing extension — but it extends the paperwork, not the payment: tax owed is still due at month nine, and the extension does not stop interest. The trap runs the other direction too: most families who SHOULD file are under the exemption and legally exempt — they should often file anyway, for portability.
The return most families skip is the one that would have saved millions.
Whether a portability-only filing is worth the preparation cost is a ten-minute analysis. 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. 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 — 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.
Who actually must file
Estates whose gross value (plus adjusted taxable gifts) exceeds the federal exemption must file. Under the 2025 act the exemption is $15 million per person from 2026, so mandatory filing is rare — but “not required” and “shouldn’t” are different. Filing a portability-only return preserves the deceased spouse’s unused exemption for the survivor, and estates below the threshold that missed the 9-month date get the simplified late election: up to 5 years from death under Rev. Proc. 2022-32. A widowed spouse with $6M and decades of compounding ahead is exactly who regrets skipping it.
Two elections that live on this return
The alternate valuation election (worth checking when values fell after death) and portability itself both happen ON the 706 — miss the return and you miss them. State estate taxes run their own returns and deadlines with much lower thresholds: estate tax by state and the estate tax calculator. Every clock on one calendar: the deadlines calculator.