Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Rhode Island’s 2026 estate tax credit exempts the first $1,838,056 of a net taxable estate, up from $1,802,431 in 2025. The tax is not a simple exemption: Rhode Island runs the whole adjusted taxable estate through a graduated bracket table, 0.8% to 16%, the pre-2001 federal state death tax credit table, and then subtracts an $87,940 credit, so a $2,838,056 estate owes about $79,809, not a flat rate applied only to the $1,000,000 excess.
2026 exemption: $1,838,056 net taxable estate (via a credit of $87,940 against the tax computation schedule) · Top rate: 16% · Key statute: R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 44-22-1.1
Filing deadline and extension
Form RI-706 is due with payment nine months after the decedent’s date of death. An automatic six-month extension is available by filing Form RI-4768. Extensions only extend the filing deadline, not the payment deadline; interest continues to accrue from the original due date at 12% per annum, and a 0.5% per month penalty, capped at 25%, applies if tax is not paid by the original due date.
How the tax actually works: a credit against a bracket table, not a simple exemption
The tax equals the maximum credit for state death taxes allowed under federal law as in effect on January 1, 2001, minus a Rhode Island credit, $87,940 for 2026, CPI-indexed. The net taxable estate is first reduced by a flat $60,000 exclusion, that figure is run through the federal pre-2001 graduated table, 0.8% at the bottom up to 16% on amounts over $10,040,000, and only then is the $87,940 credit subtracted. No DSUE or portability language appears anywhere in the full text of the statute.
Non-resident rules and apportionment
The tax is imposed upon the transfer of the net estate of every resident or nonresident decedent as a tax upon the right to transfer. For a nonresident’s estate with property outside Rhode Island, the tax is reduced by a fraction whose numerator is the gross estate excluding property with a tax situs outside Rhode Island and whose denominator is the total gross estate. Real estate and tangible personal property have Rhode Island situs only if physically located in the state, and intangible personal property has Rhode Island situs only if the decedent was a Rhode Island resident.
A $2,838,056 estate owes about $79,809, and not by any flat rate.
Rhode Island runs the whole adjusted taxable estate through a graduated table and then subtracts an $87,940 credit, so the tax is not the amount above $1,838,056 multiplied by a percentage. Estimating it from the headline exemption will give you the wrong number in both directions.
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2025 to 2026 legislative status: two competing repeal bills, both stalled
S 2019, introduced January 9, 2026, would raise the exemption to $3,600,000 on January 1, 2027, then add $1,000,000 per year through 2032, before the tax sunsets entirely on January 1, 2033. H 8190 proposes a different schedule, raising the exemption to $5,000,000 in 2027, $7,500,000 in 2029, and $10,000,000 in 2031, also eliminating the tax by 2033. Neither has passed: legislative trackers show S 2019 was held for further study by Senate Finance on April 30, 2026, and H 8190 was held for further study by House Finance on May 21, 2026, meaning both are stalled for the session.
The math on a $2,838,056 estate
Tax owed: $79,808.93. Subtract the flat $60,000 exclusion from $2,838,056 to get an adjusted taxable estate of $2,778,056. Apply the pre-2001 federal bracket for $2,540,000 to $3,040,000: tentative tax is $146,800 plus 8.8% of the excess over $2,540,000. Excess equals $238,056; 8.8% of that is $20,948.93; tentative tax equals $167,748.93. Subtract the 2026 credit of $87,940 to get $79,808.93 owed.
Honest gaps
The exact current legislative status for S 2019 and H 8190 was confirmed through third-party legislative trackers rather than a successful direct fetch of the Rhode Island General Assembly's own live status portal. No Rhode Island Division of Taxation FAQ or regulation was found explicitly stating no portability exists; that conclusion rests on the statute's silence.
Source note. Read from https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/2025-01/RI-706_Instructions_2025.pdf; https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText26/SenateText26/S2019.pdf 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.