Estate and Inheritance Tax by State (2026): Exemptions, Rates, and Statutes
This page tracks which states, and the District of Columbia, collect their own estate tax or inheritance tax on top of the federal estate tax, for deaths occurring in 2026. It covers 12 states plus DC with a state estate tax, 5 states with a state inheritance tax, the federal exemption and rate under current law, and where California fits. Every figure links to the state revenue department, state legislature, or IRS page it came from. We check the tables every September and update them when a state changes its exemption or rate.
Cite this page: Ridley Law, “Estate and Inheritance Tax by State (2026): Exemptions, Rates, and Statutes,” ridleylawoffices.com/estate-inheritance-tax-by-state/, September 2026.
Key findings
- Twelve states plus the District of Columbia impose their own estate tax, with 2026 exemptions ranging from $1,000,000 in Oregon to $15,000,000 in Connecticut, where the exemption now matches the new federal amount.
- New York taxes the entire estate, not just the amount over the exemption, once the estate exceeds 105 percent of the exemption. Illinois’s method also produces a high effective rate just above its $4,000,000 threshold. See New York’s rule in Table A.
- Washington’s own law changed mid-year: the top estate tax rate is 35 percent for deaths from January 1 through June 30, 2026, and drops to 20 percent for deaths on or after July 1, 2026, under Washington’s current rate tables.
- Iowa’s inheritance tax is gone. It stopped applying to deaths on or after January 1, 2025, under Iowa Code section 450.98, so Iowa does not appear in Table B for 2026 deaths.
- The federal estate tax exemption jumped to $15,000,000 for deaths in 2026, with a top federal rate of 40 percent above that amount, confirmed on IRS.gov.
- California has no separate state estate tax and no inheritance tax. The state’s old “pick-up tax” has collected nothing since Congress eliminated the underlying federal credit in 2005, per the Franchise Tax Board’s own analysis.
Table A: States With a State Estate Tax, 2026 Deaths
Each row reflects the rule for a death occurring in calendar year 2026. Several states adjust their exemption for inflation every year, so the dollar amount below applies only to 2026 and will change again for 2027. “Portable” means a surviving spouse can use a deceased spouse’s unused state exemption, separate from federal portability.
| State | 2026 Exemption | Top Rate | Portable Between Spouses | Gift Add-Back or Cliff Features | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | $15,000,000 | 12% flat (Conn. Gen. Stat. §12-391) | No | Adds back all Connecticut taxable gifts made since January 1, 2005. No cliff. | Connecticut DRS |
| Hawaii | $5,490,000 | 20% (HRS ch. 236E) | Yes, by timely election on Form M-6 | Exclusion is reduced by the decedent’s federal adjusted taxable gifts. No cliff. | Hawaii Dept. of Taxation |
| Illinois | $4,000,000 (flat, not indexed) | 16% (35 ILCS 405/2, 405/3) | No | Adds back adjusted taxable gifts to test the $4,000,000 threshold. Because tax is computed as a credit offset rather than tax-on-the-excess, the effective rate spikes just above the threshold. | Illinois Attorney General |
| Maine | $7,160,000 | 12% (36 M.R.S. §4103) | No (36 M.R.S. §4102(6)(C)) | Adds back taxable gifts made in the one year before death. No cliff. | Maine Revenue Services |
| Maryland | $5,000,000 (flat since 2019) | 16% (Md. Code, Tax-Gen. §7-304) | Yes, by timely election on Form MET-1 (Md. Code, Tax-Gen. §7-309) | None beyond the federal gross estate and adjusted taxable gifts test. No cliff. Maryland also has a separate inheritance tax; see Table B. | Comptroller of Maryland |
| Massachusetts | $2,000,000 (flat, not indexed) | 16% (M.G.L. c.65C, §2A) | No | No lookback on lifetime gifts. Tax is computed on the full adjusted taxable estate under the state’s Table B, then reduced by a flat $99,600 credit, so it is not a pure tax-on-the-excess system. | Massachusetts DOR |
| Minnesota | $3,000,000 (flat), plus up to $2,000,000 more through a qualified farm or small-business subtraction | 16% (Minn. Stat. §291.03, subd. 1) | No | Adds back Minnesota gifts made within 3 years of death (Minn. Stat. §291.016, subd. 2). A 16% recapture tax applies if farm or business property claimed under the extra subtraction loses its qualifying use within 3 years. | Minnesota Statutes §291.03 |
| New York | $7,350,000 | 16% (N.Y. Tax Law §952) | No | Cliff: no exemption at all applies once the New York taxable estate exceeds 105% of the exemption ($7,717,500 for 2026), so the entire estate is taxed. Also adds back most taxable gifts a New York resident made within 3 years of death (N.Y. Tax Law §954(a)(3)). | NY Dept. of Taxation and Finance |
| Oregon | $1,000,000 (flat since 2012, not indexed) | 16% (ORS 118.010) | No | None found. | Oregon Revised Statutes |
| Rhode Island | $1,838,056 (credit amount $87,940, indexed annually) | 16% (R.I. Gen. Laws §44-22-1.1, using the federal state death tax credit table as it stood on January 1, 2001) | No | None found. Tax is computed by a credit method rather than a simple bracket-on-the-excess. | RI Division of Taxation, R.I. Gen. Laws §44-22-1.1 |
| Vermont | $5,000,000 (flat, not indexed) | 16% flat on the excess over the exemption (32 V.S.A. §7442a) | No | Adds back taxable gifts made within 2 years of death. No cliff. | Vermont Dept. of Taxes |
| Washington | $3,076,000 for deaths January 1 – June 30, 2026; $3,000,000 for deaths July 1, 2026 and later | 35% for deaths through June 30, 2026; 20% for deaths July 1, 2026 and later (RCW 83.100.040, as amended by 2025 and 2026 session laws) | No | Includes gift tax paid within 3 years of death and certain retained-interest transfers under IRC §§2036–2038 and 2042 made within 3 years of death. No cliff. | Washington Dept. of Revenue |
| District of Columbia (not a state) | $4,988,400 | 16% (D.C. Code §47-3702) | No portability provision found in the DC Code | None found beyond the federal gross estate. | DC Office of Tax and Revenue |
Table B: States With a State Inheritance Tax, 2026 Deaths
An inheritance tax is paid by the person who inherits, based on that person’s relationship to the decedent, not by the estate as a whole. Iowa repealed its inheritance tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2025, so it is not in this table for 2026. Maryland has both an inheritance tax and the separate estate tax shown in Table A.
| State | Who Is Exempt | Rate Range by Class | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | Class A: spouse, parent, child, grandchild, sibling, half-sibling | Class B (aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, in-law, great-grandchild): 4% to 16%, first $1,000 exempt. Class C (everyone else): 6% to 16%, first $500 exempt. | Kentucky Dept. of Revenue |
| Maryland | Spouse, child or other lineal descendant, parent, grandparent, spouse of a child, and full siblings | All other beneficiaries: flat 10% of the property’s clear value. The first $1,000 passing to any one person is exempt regardless of relationship. | Md. Code, Tax-Gen. §7-204 |
| Nebraska | Spouse (no dollar limit), and any beneficiary under age 22 | Immediate relatives (parents, grandparents, children, other lineal descendants): 1% over a $100,000 exemption. Remote relatives (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews): 11% over a $40,000 exemption. All other beneficiaries: 15% over a $25,000 exemption. | Nebraska Revised Statutes §77-2006 |
| New Jersey | Class A: spouse, civil union or domestic partner, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, stepchild. Class E: qualifying charities and government entities. | Class C (siblings, sons/daughters-in-law): 11% to 16% after a $25,000 exemption. Class D (everyone else): 15% to 16%, with no exemption. | NJ Division of Taxation |
| Pennsylvania | Spouse; transfers between a parent and a child age 21 or younger, in either direction; charities and government entities | Direct descendants and lineal heirs (children, grandchildren, parents): 4.5%. Siblings: 12%. All other heirs: 15%. Pennsylvania has no general dollar exemption for these classes. | Pennsylvania Dept. of Revenue |
Table C: States With Neither Tax
The remaining 34 jurisdictions, including California, did not appear as taxing states in our review for 2026 deaths. California’s status is confirmed from a state source; the others are listed based on the cross-check described in the Methodology.
| State | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| California | No state estate tax and no inheritance tax. California’s old “pick-up tax” is keyed to the federal state death tax credit, which Congress repealed effective 2005 and replaced with a deduction. With no federal credit to pick up, the California tax collects zero. | California FTB, SB 378 analysis |
| Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, 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 | Not a taxing state in Tax Foundation’s January 1, 2026 compilation or in our review of Tables A and B; not individually confirmed against each state’s code. See Methodology. | See Methodology |
Federal Estate Tax Context for 2026
The federal basic exclusion amount for deaths in 2026 is $15,000,000, up from $13,990,000 in 2025. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, set this higher amount permanently rather than letting the exclusion fall back to roughly half that level at the end of 2025, and it is indexed for inflation going forward. The top federal estate tax rate is 40 percent, under the rate table in 26 U.S.C. §2001(c), confirmed on IRS.gov.
A California resident’s estate is not automatically safe from every other state’s estate tax. Most state estate taxes reach real property and tangible personal property physically located in that state, regardless of where the owner lived. New York is a documented example: a nonresident decedent’s estate must file a New York estate tax return if the estate includes real or tangible personal property located in New York, according to the instructions to New York’s nonresident estate tax return (Form ET-706). This does not extend to intangible property such as stock, which generally follows the owner’s domicile. Other estate tax states may apply similar rules to their own nonresident decedents; check the specific state before assuming out-of-state real estate or tangible property escapes that state’s tax.
What This Means in California
California’s estate tax statute is still on the books, but it is tied to a federal credit that no longer exists, so it collects nothing. California has no inheritance tax today. See California Estate Tax in 2026 and Estate and Inheritance Tax in California for the fuller picture, and the Estate Tax Exposure Calculator to check where a specific estate sits against the current federal exemption.
That does not mean California families are untouched by these numbers. The federal exemption above still applies to everyone, and a married couple can use portability, or a bypass trust in an older plan, so the first spouse’s unused federal exemption isn’t lost at death. For a surviving spouse’s lifetime trust that also qualifies for the marital deduction, see the glossary entry on the QTIP trust. Separately, most inherited assets get a stepped-up basis for capital gains purposes at death, which affects far more California families day to day than the federal or any other state’s estate tax; see the glossary entry on step-up in basis. And a California resident who owns a vacation home, rental property, or other tangible property in one of the 12 estate tax states, DC, or the 5 inheritance tax states above should ask a lawyer licensed there whether that state’s tax reaches that property, since California’s own repeal does not protect against another state’s tax. Current California-specific numbers for 2026, including probate thresholds and Medi-Cal figures, are in California Estate Planning Numbers 2026.
Related Pages on This Site
- California Estate Tax in 2026
- Estate and Inheritance Tax in California
- Estate Tax Exposure Calculator
- California Estate Planning Numbers 2026
- Estate Tax Portability in California
- Non-Citizen Spouse and the Estate Tax: The QDOT Rule
- Step-Up in Basis
- QTIP Trust
Methodology
Every figure in Tables A and B was confirmed directly from the state’s own department of revenue, tax division, or legislature site, or from the equivalent District of Columbia agency, checked in September 2026. Federal figures came from IRS.gov and the United States Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. California’s figure came from the Franchise Tax Board’s own legislative analysis of SB 378. Massachusetts blocks automated requests from tools without a full browser fingerprint, including the check used to confirm this page’s links; its figures were confirmed by loading the Massachusetts Department of Revenue’s Estate Tax Guide in a live browser session on the date above, and the same URL is cited in Table A.
Tax Foundation’s current state-by-state estate and inheritance tax data (as of January 1, 2026) and the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel’s State Death Tax Chart were used only to cross-check that no state was missed or miscategorized, never as a cited source. The ACTEC chart’s own current version no longer compiles independent data; it links out to third-party sites, and ACTEC’s last independently compiled chart is from 2018. Tax Foundation’s list of taxing states matched the 17 jurisdictions in Tables A and B with no additions or disputes.
Table C’s 33 states other than California were not individually confirmed against each state’s own revenue code page. They are listed as having neither tax because they fall outside the Tax Foundation cross-check list and outside the primary-source-confirmed states in Tables A and B. Anyone relying on Table C for a specific state should confirm directly with that state, particularly since state legislatures introduce estate and inheritance tax bills most years.
Rhode Island’s estate tax rate deserves a specific note. R.I. Gen. Laws §44-22-1 states rates that top out at 9%, but that section applies only to deaths before January 1, 1992. For deaths after that date, R.I. Gen. Laws §44-22-1.1 directs the computation to the federal state death tax credit table as it stood on January 1, 2001, which tops out at 16%. This page uses the current 16% rate; a widely repeated 9% figure traces to reading the superseded section alone.
Next scheduled review: September 2027, or sooner if a state enacts a change. To report an error, email eric@ridleylawoffices.com.
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