Estate Tax Calculator

This calculator estimates the federal estate tax owed based on your estate value and available deductions. For 2024, the vast majority of estates owe $0 due to the historically high $13.61 million exemption.

• Total Estate Value: includes everything you own: real estate, bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts (IRAs, 401k), life insurance death benefits if you own the policy, business interests, and personal property.
• Debts and Liabilities: mortgages, car loans, credit card balances, and other debts are subtracted from the gross estate.
• Charitable Bequests: assets left to qualified charities are fully deductible, reducing the taxable estate dollar for dollar.
• Marital Deduction: assets left to a U.S. citizen spouse are fully deductible (unlimited marital deduction). The surviving spouse can also elect portability to use the deceased spouse's unused exemption.

Note: state estate taxes apply in 12 states plus Washington D.C. and have much lower exemptions (some as low as $1 million). This calculator covers federal tax only.

The estate tax calculation follows these steps:

Gross Estate
- Debts and Liabilities
- Charitable Bequests
- Marital Deduction
= Adjusted Estate

Adjusted Estate
- Federal Exemption ($13,610,000 in 2024)
= Taxable Estate

Tax = Applied across progressive brackets (18% to 40%)

Portability: a surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse's unused exemption by filing an estate tax return (Form 706) within 9 months. This effectively gives a married couple a combined exemption of $27.22 million in 2024.

Sunset provision: the current $13.61 million exemption is scheduled to drop by roughly half in 2026 when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire. Without Congressional action, the exemption will return to approximately $7 million per person (inflation-adjusted).