Estate Tax Calculator: The Complete 2026 Guide

The federal estate tax touches a smaller share of estates than most people assume — but the ones it touches can owe up to 40 percent, and the paperwork deadline is measured in months, not years. An estate tax calculator turns the grim spreadsheet question — what would this estate owe, and by when? — into a number and a date. This guide explains what the tool computes, who genuinely needs it, and the exact 2025 and 2026 federal figures the math runs on: the 13.99-million-dollar exemption for 2025, the 40 percent top rate, and the portability election surviving spouses routinely miss. It also covers the state layer, where thresholds as low as one million dollars reach ordinary families. As always here, the output is an educational estimate, not professional advice.

SECTION 01What an Estate Tax Calculator Does

The estate tax is levied on the value of what a deceased person leaves behind, computed on Form 706. An estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html) starts with the gross estate — real estate, accounts, businesses, retirement funds, and certain life insurance, valued as of the date of death — then subtracts deductions such as debts, funeral and administrative costs, charitable bequests, and assets left to a spouse. What remains is the taxable estate, added to any prior taxable gifts, compared against the exemption, and taxed at graduated rates from 18 to 40 percent on the excess.

The more useful job is comparative. Filing the election that preserves a deceased spouse's unused exemption can be worth millions, and the calculator shows that in one pass, the same way it shows what a charitable bequest or a lifetime gifting program does to the eventual bill. It is a planning instrument for the living, not merely an executor's chore.

SECTION 02Who Actually Needs One

For 2025 the federal exemption is 13.99 million dollars per person — 27.98 million for a married couple planning together — so only a small fraction of US deaths produce a federal estate tax bill. The tool still matters for four groups: families above those lines, executors deciding whether a Form 706 must be filed anyway, surviving spouses who need the portability election even when no tax is due, and residents of states with far lower thresholds than the federal one.

There is a second audience that surprises people: moderate estates holding a business, farmland, or a large life-insurance policy. Insurance payable to the estate or owned by the decedent counts in the gross estate, and a house in an expensive metro area plus retirement accounts can cross a state line's threshold long before the federal one. The calculator prices all of it before anyone commits to a plan.

SECTION 03The 2025-2026 Federal Figures the Math Runs On

Three numbers carry the federal math. First, the exemption: 13.99 million dollars per decedent for 2025, unified with the lifetime gift-tax exemption, meaning large lifetime gifts reduce what the estate can shelter. Second, the rate schedule: 18 percent at the bottom, rising to the famous 40 percent top rate on the excess above the exemption. Third, the unified credit table converts that schedule into the tentative tax the calculator applies.

For 2026, legislation enacted in July 2025 sets the basic exclusion at 15 million dollars per person, indexed for inflation in later years. Earlier planning built on a scheduled 2026 drop back toward 7 million dollars became obsolete — a useful reminder that estate figures are legislated and they change. Re-run the numbers against current law before acting on any plan drafted years earlier.

Deadlines are part of the math. Form 706 is due nine months after death, with a six-month filing extension available on Form 4768 — an extension of time to file, not to pay. Interest accrues on unpaid tax from the original due date, which is why the calculator's output should always be paired with the calendar, and why executors should calendar the date the week the estate opens rather than trusting memory.

SECTION 04Portability: The Election Surviving Spouses Miss

Portability lets a surviving spouse add the deceased spouse's unused exemption — the DSUE amount — to their own, so a couple can shelter the combined total without trusts. The catch is procedural: the election is made only on a timely filed Form 706, and that requirement applies even when the estate plainly owes no tax. An executor who files nothing to save paperwork can permanently forfeit millions of exemption for the survivor.

Some relief exists: estates not otherwise required to file can make a simplified late portability election, generally within about five years of death under IRS guidance. But the clean path is the original deadline, and this is precisely the decision an estate tax calculator informs — estimate the estate, check the unused exemption, and decide whether the 706 is worth filing. Usually it is.

SECTION 05State Estate Taxes: A Lower Line Than You Think

Roughly a dozen states plus the District of Columbia levy their own estate taxes, with thresholds far below the federal exemption. For 2025, Massachusetts taxed estates above 2 million dollars and Oregon above 1 million — lines that capture ordinary homes and retirement accounts, not just wealth — while New York sat near 7 million and Washington just above 2 million. There is no federal credit for state estate tax; the two systems stack.

A few wrinkles matter. Connecticut tracks the federal exemption, while most states set their own; New York penalizes estates just over its threshold with a cliff rather than a phase-in; and a handful of states levy inheritance taxes on recipients based on their relationship to the decedent. Property in several states can trigger more than one state filing. Any calculator run behind a planning decision should include the state layer, or the federal answer will be the smaller half of the bill.

SECTION 06A Worked Example With 2025 Numbers

A single decedent leaves a gross estate of 17.5 million dollars: a house, accounts, a business interest, and a paid-up life policy she owned. Debts, funeral, and administrative expenses total 500,000 dollars, so the taxable estate is 17 million, and she made no reportable lifetime gifts. The excess over the 13.99-million-dollar exemption is 3.01 million dollars, and the tentative tax on that excess is 1,149,800 — call it 1.15 million dollars due within nine months of death.

Now the comparative work the calculator exists for. Had she been married and left everything to her spouse, the unlimited marital deduction would have produced zero federal tax — but only a timely Form 706 would have preserved her unused 13.99 million for the survivor. Suppose instead that 2.5 million of the estate went to charity: the taxable estate falls to 14.5 million, and the federal bill drops to about 158,500 dollars. Run all three versions through our estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html) and the planning decision makes itself.

SECTION 07What Counts, What Gets Deducted, and the Step-Up

The gross estate is broader than the probate estate. It includes worldwide assets, retirement accounts, jointly held property, certain trusts the decedent retained control over, and life insurance the decedent owned or held incidents of ownership in. Taxable gifts made beyond the annual exclusion are added back into the base. On the deduction side sit debts, last-illness and funeral costs, administration expenses, unlimited charitable bequests, and the unlimited marital deduction for a citizen spouse.

Every appreciated asset also receives a basis step-up at death — inherited property's cost basis generally resets to date-of-death value, erasing decades of built-in capital gain. That interacts directly with lifetime gifting, since gifts carry the donor's basis instead. Our capital gains tax calculator (/capital-gains-tax-calculator.html) covers the income-tax side of that trade-off: sell before death and owe gains tax, or hold and hand heirs a stepped-up basis. It is one of the genuinely consequential comparisons in the field.

SECTION 08Limits of Any Estate Tax Estimate

Be honest about scope. A calculator estimates federal and, if modeled, state tax on the values you enter. It cannot value a closely held business with marketability discounts, judge whether a family limited partnership holds up, predict a valuation audit, or interpret a will's formulas. The date-of-death values themselves — appraisals for real estate, art, and private company interests — are professional work with their own rules.

The figures in this guide reflect published 2025 parameters and the 15-million-dollar 2026 exclusion set by 2025 legislation, but estate law changes with Congress and with inflation adjustments, and state schedules move independently. For estates near any threshold, for blended families, or for anything involving a business, treat the calculator as the fast first draft and the estate attorney as the final one.

SECTION 09Before You Start: The Inputs That Drive Everything

Five inputs decide almost everything: the gross estate at date-of-death value (not purchase price), debts and administrative costs, charitable and marital bequests, prior taxable gifts beyond the annual exclusion, and the state of residence. The tax runs on the taxable estate — gross value minus deductions — compared against the exemption, with the graduated 18-to-40-percent schedule applied to the excess.

Two habits make every scenario below accurate. First, value assets as of the date of death, not the date of planning; markets move. Second, count the life insurance the decedent owned, because it enters the gross estate even though nobody files it as a house would. If the calculator asks for a state, answer honestly — the state layer is where mid-size estates get surprised.

SECTION 10Scenario 1 — A Single Decedent Comfortably Under the Exemption

A widower dies in 2025 leaving a 6.2-million-dollar gross estate: a paid-off house, brokerage accounts, and a car. Debts and final expenses total 200,000 dollars, so the taxable estate is 6 million. Against the 13.99-million-dollar exemption the excess is zero, and the calculator returns 0 dollars of federal estate tax. No Form 706 is federally required for him, and the executor's remaining duty is documenting the date-of-death values that made the answer obvious.

The honest caveats: his state may disagree. A Massachusetts resident with this estate crossed the 2-million-dollar state threshold for 2025, and an Oregon resident crossed theirs at 1 million. And because he is single, portability — the reason many no-tax estates file anyway — does not apply. The federal answer is genuinely zero; the state answer depends on where he lived.

SECTION 11Scenario 2 — Portability on an Estate That Owes Nothing

A first spouse dies in 2025 with an 8-million-dollar estate and leaves everything to the surviving spouse. The unlimited marital deduction wipes out the taxable base, so the federal tax is 0 dollars — but the executor wisely files Form 706 anyway, electing portability. The surviving spouse's DSUE amount becomes the full 13.99 million dollars, because none of the first spouse's exemption was used.

Years later the survivor dies in 2026 with a 26-million-dollar estate. Her own exclusion is 15 million, and the DSUE adds 13.99 million, for 28.99 million total — the excess is zero and the tax is 0 dollars. Without the portability election, the excess would have been 11 million dollars, producing 345,800 plus 40 percent of 10 million, or about 4,346,000 dollars. One timely filing, made when no tax was due, saved roughly 4.3 million.

SECTION 12Scenario 3 — Crossing the Line: the 40 Percent Rate at Work

A single decedent in 2025 leaves a taxable estate of 16.49 million dollars. The excess over the 13.99-million-dollar exemption is 2.5 million dollars, and the schedule applies: 345,800 dollars of tentative tax at the one-million mark, plus 40 percent of the remaining 1.5 million, for a total of 945,800 dollars — about 946,000, payable on the IRS schedule in cash the estate may not have on hand.

Notice what the headline rate does and does not mean. The 40 percent applies only to the excess, so the effective rate on the whole estate here is under 6 percent. Executors who assume the entire estate is taxed at 40 percent panic; planners who know the structure negotiate calmly. The calculator makes the distinction automatic instead of arithmetic, and it shows how a charitable bequest or a state move would change the excess the 40 percent actually lands on.

SECTION 13Scenario 4 — The State Tax on a Modest Estate

A Massachusetts resident dies in 2025 with a taxable estate of 3.4 million dollars — a house bought decades ago plus retirement accounts. The federal calculation returns zero: 3.4 million sits far below 13.99 million. But Massachusetts taxed estates above 2 million dollars for 2025, and our estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html), loaded with the state schedule, returns a bill on the order of 100,000 dollars, due on the state's own deadline.

The lesson is structural, not numeric. For estates between roughly 1 and 14 million dollars, the binding constraint is usually the state, not the federal government — Oregon's 1-million-dollar threshold for 2025 is the lowest, with Massachusetts, Washington, and Minnesota not far behind. A calculator that stops at the federal line understates the real bill for exactly the families most likely to use it.

SECTION 14Scenario 5 — Charity Rewrites the Bill

A decedent leaves a 15.2-million-dollar taxable estate in 2025 with no spouse and no prior gifts. The excess over 13.99 million is 1.21 million dollars, taxed at 345,800 plus 40 percent of 210,000 — about 429,800 dollars. Her will then directs 1.5 million to a charitable foundation, and the unlimited charitable deduction applies: the taxable estate falls to 13.7 million, below the exemption, and the federal bill drops to 0 dollars.

Read the trade honestly. Heirs previously would have netted about 14.77 million after tax; with the bequest they net 13.7 million — 1.07 million less, not 1.5 million less, because the gift eliminated 429,800 of tax on the way. Charitable bequests are among the few levers that change the estate tax arithmetic this directly, and the calculator prices each version in one pass.

SECTION 15Scenario 6 — Lifetime Gifts Come Home to Roost

A decedent gave away 4 million dollars of reportable taxable gifts over her lifetime — amounts beyond the 19,000-dollar annual exclusions — all properly reported on Form 709. Her 2025 taxable estate is 14.5 million dollars. The gifts consumed 4 million of exemption, leaving 9.99 million; the excess is 4.51 million, and the tax is 345,800 plus 40 percent of 3.51 million, about 1,749,800 dollars.

Compare the no-gift world: the same estate would have exceeded the full 13.99-million exemption by only 510,000, producing roughly 158,500 dollars of tax. The gifts themselves were tax-free when made, but they moved exemption forward — and carried the donor's income-tax basis out of the estate, which our gift tax calculator (/gift-tax-calculator.html) treats in detail. Gifting is a strategy with three ledgers: gift tax now, estate tax later, and capital gains in between.

SECTION 16What a Calculator Cannot Model

Every scenario above used clean, appraised-at-market inputs. Real estates involve closely held businesses with valuation discounts, fractional interests, pending lawsuits, caretaker arrangements, and family loans that may or may not be treated as gifts. Audits of large estates are a real event, and valuation is the battleground. None of that fits in an input box, which is why these six scenarios end exactly where an attorney's file begins.

Use the worked numbers here to understand the mechanics — the exemption line, the 40 percent excess, the portability election, the state threshold — and then hand the actual estate to a professional with the calculator's first draft attached. Figures cited are published 2025 parameters, hedged accordingly, and 2026 brings a 15-million-dollar exclusion that will change several of these answers.

SECTION 17Mistakes 1-3: Threshold and Asset Errors

Mistake one: assuming the 13.99-million-dollar exemption makes estate tax planning pointless. The federal line exempts most estates, but roughly a dozen states levy their own with thresholds as low as 1 million dollars (Oregon) and 2 million (Massachusetts) for 2025 — and their rates stack on top, with no federal credit. Mistake two: forgetting life insurance. A policy the decedent owned, or held incidents of ownership in, enters the gross estate at face value; a 3-million-dollar house plus a 3-million-dollar policy is a 6-million-dollar estate whether or not anyone thinks of it that way.

Mistake three: valuing assets at purchase price or at the date of planning instead of the date of death. The estate tax runs on fair market value at death — a house bought for 180,000 dollars in 1995 that appraises at 1.4 million enters at 1.4 million. Executors who hand the calculator stale values produce estimates that are wrong in both directions, and date-of-death appraisals for real estate and business interests are professional work with their own standards.

SECTION 18Mistakes 4-6: Election and Deadline Errors

Mistake four: skipping the portability election. When the first spouse dies leaving everything to the survivor, no tax is due, so no one files Form 706 — and the survivor permanently loses the deceased spouse's unused exemption, worth up to 13.99 million dollars for 2025 deaths. The election exists only on a timely filed 706, even for estates that owe nothing; our estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html) can price exactly what a skipped election costs. Mistake five: treating the six-month extension as payment relief — Form 4768 extends filing only, and interest runs on unpaid tax from the nine-month date.

Mistake six: forgetting prior taxable gifts. The estate and gift exemptions are one unified bucket: reportable gifts made over a lifetime, everything beyond the 19,000-dollar annual exclusions, are added back to the estate base and the exemption they consumed is subtracted. A family that gifted 4 million decades ago and plans around a full 13.99-million exemption is planning around a number that no longer exists.

SECTION 19Mistakes 7-9: State and Basis Errors

Mistake seven: assuming the federal exemption covers the state line. A 3-million-dollar estate owes zero federally and a five-figure or six-figure state bill in several states — the calculator must be run twice, once per layer. Mistake eight: gifting appreciated assets in the final years of life to save estate tax while destroying the basis step-up; heirs receive the donor's carryover basis and owe capital gains that a step-up at death would have erased, a trade-off covered alongside our gift tax calculator (/gift-tax-calculator.html).

Mistake nine: treating a revocable living trust as an estate-tax shelter. These trusts are excellent probate-avoidance and incapacity tools, but the assets inside them remain fully in the gross estate — the calculator counts them dollar for dollar. Families who built a trust and stopped planning on the belief that it solved taxes are the most common surprised audience in this field.

SECTION 20Mistakes 10-11: Structure and Staleness Errors

Mistake ten: assuming the unlimited marital deduction works for every spouse. It does not apply to a non-citizen spouse without special trust structures (qualified domestic trusts), and the annual exclusion for outright gifts to a non-citizen spouse is capped far lower — about 190,000 dollars for 2025. Cross-border marriages need professional structuring well before any calculator run, and the trust work belongs with counsel in both countries.

Mistake eleven: set-and-forget planning built on old exemption figures. The scheduled 2026 collapse toward 7 million dominated planning for years, then 2025 legislation set a 15-million-dollar exclusion for 2026 — plans written under the old assumption now run the wrong direction. Families who shelved gifting strategies under the old law should retrieve them, and every document drafted against the sunset deserves a full re-run before anything is signed.

SECTION 21Five Pro Tips Worth More Than Any Calculator

Tip one: file the Form 706 for portability even when the estate owes nothing — it is the highest-value piece of paperwork most executors skip. Tip two: calendar the nine-month date the week of death, with the extension filed early if appraisals will run long. Tip three: inventory the insurance first; it is the asset most often missing from family estimates. Tip four: hold appreciated assets for the step-up and give away cash within the annual exclusion instead — 19,000 dollars per recipient in 2025, split-giftable to 38,000 for married couples.

Tip five: re-run everything after legislative changes and before any irrevocable step. The calculator's real product is not the tax figure — it is the comparison: file versus skip, give versus hold, state layer versus federal layer. Executors who bring the printed comparisons to the estate attorney's first meeting make better decisions, file faster, and pay meaningfully smaller bills, because the expensive questions were answered before the meter started running.

SECTION 22What a Calculator Cannot See

A calculator sees values, not documents. It cannot read a will's formula clauses, interpret a marital trust's terms, value a minority stake in an operating business, spot a disguised gift inside a family loan, or decide whether a valuation discount survives audit. It also cannot apportion multiple states' taxes on property sitting in several of them — a genuinely professional computation.

Scale the caution to the stakes: a 4-million-dollar estate in a no-tax state with a citizen spouse is a fifteen-minute conversation; a 20-million-dollar estate with a business, blended children, and two states is an engagement. Treat the estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html) as the fast, honest first draft that turns a vague fear into a number, and let the professionals handle the drafts that matter enough to pay for. Figures here are educational estimates on published 2025 parameters, hedged for change.

SECTION 23A Simple Sequence for Executors

For the family doing this without a professional, one sequence prevents most of the eleven mistakes above. First, within weeks of death: inventory every asset — including insurance policies and retirement accounts — and order date-of-death values. Second, check the state threshold before celebrating the federal one; the state filing clock may be shorter and its rules independent. Third, tally prior taxable gifts from the decedent's Form 709 history, because the exemption is whatever remains, not the headline figure.

Fourth, decide the portability question deliberately — file the Form 706 or record in writing why not — and calendar the nine-month date either way. Fifth, run the numbers through the estate tax calculator (/estate-tax-calculator.html) twice: once with current values, once with conservative ones, and let the gap tell you how much professional certainty the estate actually needs. Small gaps justify self-preparation; wide ones justify the CPA's invoice.

🔑 Key takeaways

• The 2025 federal exemption is 13.99 million dollars per person, unified with lifetime gifts; 2025 legislation sets 15 million for 2026, indexed thereafter.
• Rates run 18 to 40 percent on the excess over the exemption — the 40 percent headline rate applies only above that line.
• Portability of a deceased spouse's unused exemption requires a timely Form 706 even when no tax is due — the most commonly missed election in this field.
• Form 706 is due nine months after death; the six-month extension extends filing, not payment.
• State estate taxes bite far lower: for 2025, Massachusetts at 2 million dollars and Oregon at 1 million reach ordinary families.
• Every figure is an educational estimate on your inputs — valuations, audits, and document drafting belong with professionals.
• A 6-million-dollar estate owes 0 federal tax under the 13.99-million-dollar 2025 exemption — but Massachusetts or Oregon may tax it anyway.
• Portability preserved 13.99 million of DSUE on a no-tax estate and later erased a 4.35-million-dollar bill for the survivor.
• The 40 percent rate applies only to the excess over the exemption — one 16.49-million-dollar estate owed 946,000, under 6 percent effective.
• A 1.5-million-dollar charitable bequest wiped out a 429,800-dollar federal bill, costing heirs 1.07 million net rather than the full gift.
• 4 million dollars of lifetime gifts raised one estate's bill from about 158,500 to 1.75 million — exemption is a single shared bucket.
• Every result is an educational estimate on your inputs; valuations, audits, and state schedules are professional territory.
• The federal exemption — 13.99 million dollars for 2025 — does not protect against state estate taxes with thresholds as low as 1 million.
• Life insurance the decedent owned enters the gross estate at face value and is the most commonly omitted asset in family estimates.
• Portability requires a timely Form 706 even when zero tax is due; skipping it can forfeit up to 13.99 million of exemption for the survivor.
• The six-month extension extends filing only — interest runs on unpaid estate tax from the original nine-month date.
• Lifetime taxable gifts and the estate exemption are one bucket; the estate cannot shelter what the gifts already consumed.
• Every result is an educational estimate on your inputs — valuations, trust documents, and cross-border issues belong with professionals.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Does a surviving spouse automatically receive the unused exemption?

No — portability must be elected on a timely filed Form 706, even when the estate owes nothing. A simplified late election exists for estates not otherwise required to file, generally within about five years of death, but the original deadline is the reliable path.

Is life insurance included in the taxable estate?

If the decedent owned the policy or held incidents of ownership, yes, at the death benefit's value. Policies owned by a genuinely independent irrevocable trust stay outside the estate, but whether a trust qualifies is a professional question, not a calculator question.

Do heirs pay income tax on what they inherit?

Generally not on the inheritance itself, and most assets receive a stepped-up basis, so later sales owe capital gains only on appreciation after death. Retirement accounts are a notable exception with income-in-respect rules; our capital gains tax calculator covers the gain side.

What is the deadline for filing Form 706?

Nine months after the date of death, with a six-month extension to file available on Form 4768. The extension does not extend time to pay, and interest runs on unpaid tax from the original due date.

Can a state tax an estate the federal government does not?

Yes. Roughly a dozen states plus DC levy estate taxes with much lower thresholds — for 2025, Massachusetts at 2 million dollars and Oregon at 1 million. The federal exemption is irrelevant at the state line, so model both layers.

How do lifetime gifts affect the estate calculation?

Taxable gifts beyond the annual exclusion are added back to the estate base, and the exemption they consumed is subtracted, so the estate cannot shelter the same dollars twice. Gifts within the 19,000-dollar annual exclusion never enter the calculation.

Does an estate under the federal exemption still file Form 706?

Sometimes. Portability for a surviving spouse requires it, some states require a separate filing at their lower thresholds, and certain elections and basis documentation make it wise. A purely federal, under-exemption, single-decedent estate generally does not file.

What if we already missed the portability deadline?

Ask about the simplified late election: estates not otherwise required to file Form 706 can generally elect portability within about five years of death under IRS guidance. Estates that had to file for other reasons have less relief — a professional should review the facts.

Is the 40 percent rate charged on the whole estate?

No. The graduated schedule runs from 18 to 40 percent, and the top rate applies only to the excess over the exemption. Effective rates on entire taxable estates are typically a fraction of the headline number.

Do retirement accounts count toward the estate?

Yes, at date-of-death value — IRAs and 401(k)s are estate assets even though they also carry income tax when beneficiaries withdraw them, under income-in-respect rules. The two layers are why retirement-heavy estates need careful modeling.

Does the estate tax apply to noncitizens?

US residents and citizens use the full worldwide computation with the 13.99-million-dollar 2025 exemption. Nonresident aliens face tax only on US-situs assets, but with a tiny 60,000-dollar exemption for 2025 — a genuinely professional-territory area.

How does the calculator treat a revocable living trust?

Assets in a revocable trust are part of the gross estate exactly as if owned personally — these trusts avoid probate, not estate tax. Enter them as regular assets; assuming trust labels change the tax is one of the field's classic errors.

Does every estate have to file Form 706?

No. Filing is required when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the exemption, and voluntary filing is how surviving spouses elect portability. States with their own estate taxes require separate filings at their lower thresholds.

What happens if the portability deadline is missed?

A simplified late election exists for estates not otherwise required to file, generally within about five years of death under IRS guidance. Estates that were required to file for other reasons have narrower relief, so a professional should review the specifics.

Is inherited money taxable income to the heirs?

Generally no — the inheritance itself is not income, and most assets take a stepped-up basis so later sales owe capital gains only on post-death appreciation. Retirement accounts are the big exception, taxed to beneficiaries under income-in-respect rules.

How is the 40 percent rate actually applied?

To the excess over the exemption only. The schedule is graduated from 18 to 40 percent, so a 16.49-million-dollar estate in 2025 owes about 946,000 — an effective rate under 6 percent, far from a flat 40 percent on everything.

Do we owe both estate tax and income tax on the same assets?

The estate tax is computed and paid by the estate; heirs owe income tax only on post-death income and gains, except for retirement accounts, which carry income tax to beneficiaries. Plan both layers, because together they can change decisions materially.

What about a spouse who is not a US citizen?

The unlimited marital deduction does not apply to bequests to a non-citizen spouse unless a qualified domestic trust holds them, and outright annual gifts to a non-citizen spouse are capped near 190,000 dollars for 2025. This is strictly professional-territory planning.

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