Estate Tax Exposure Calculator

What This Calculator Does

Enter an estimated estate value, marital status, and any lifetime gifts already made. This tool shows whether the estate is exposed to federal estate tax under the current $15,000,000 exemption, what would happen if that exemption reverts to roughly $7,000,000, and what the estimated tax bill would be under each scenario. It takes about a minute.

What the Federal Estate Tax Actually Is

The federal estate tax is a tax on the transfer of wealth at death. It only applies to the portion of an estate that exceeds the applicable exemption amount, and for most people, it never applies at all. In 2026, roughly 99.8% of estates fall entirely under the exemption and owe nothing. The tax matters for a specific group: people whose combined assets, including real property, retirement accounts, investment portfolios, business interests, and life insurance death benefits, add up to more than the exemption.

When it does apply, the top marginal rate is 40% (IRC § 2001(c)). The actual rate schedule is graduated below that, but 40% applies to nearly all of the taxable amount above the exemption, which is why this calculator uses it as a simplified estimate rather than running the full bracket calculation.

The Current Exemption: $15,000,000 Per Person

For 2026, the federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15,000,000 per individual, or $30,000,000 for a married couple who uses portability (IRC § 2010(c)(3); One Big Beautiful Bill Act, P.L. 119-21; Rev. Proc. 2025-32). This figure is set to adjust for inflation each year going forward under the same statute.

This is a meaningfully higher number than it was a few years ago. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 roughly doubled the exemption starting in 2018, and the OBBBA made that higher level permanent rather than letting it expire at the end of 2025 as originally scheduled. For now, that means very few estates owe federal estate tax at all.

Portability: How Married Couples Get to $30,000,000

Every individual has their own exemption. A married couple does not automatically get to combine both, they have to elect it. Portability lets a surviving spouse use whatever portion of the first spouse's exemption went unused, called the deceased spousal unused exclusion amount, or DSUE (IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A)).

Portability is not automatic. It requires the estate of the first spouse to die to file a federal estate tax return, IRS Form 706, and make the election, even when no tax is owed and no return would otherwise be required. Skip that filing and the unused exemption is gone permanently. This is one of the more common and entirely avoidable estate planning mistakes: a spouse dies with no taxable estate, no return gets filed because none was legally required, and the survivor later finds out they only have their own exemption to work with instead of the full combined amount.

The Sunset Risk: Why $15,000,000 Might Not Last

The current exemption is a policy choice, not a permanent fixture. Before the OBBBA made the higher exemption permanent, it had been scheduled to expire at the end of 2025 and revert to roughly $7,000,000 per person (the pre-TCJA baseline, inflation-adjusted). Congress changed course this time, but a future Congress can change course again. Tax law tied to a specific administration's priorities tends to get revisited.

For estates comfortably under $7,000,000, this is academic. For estates between roughly $7,000,000 and $15,000,000 (or $14,000,000 to $30,000,000 for a married couple using portability), it is a real planning question. Lifetime gifts made while the higher exemption is in effect are generally protected even if the exemption later drops, under IRS anti-clawback regulations. That creates a genuine "use it or lose it" window: gifting now can lock in shelter from tax that a future exemption reduction would otherwise take away.

The Annual Gift Exclusion

Separate from the lifetime exemption, every person can give up to $19,000 per recipient per year in 2026 without touching their lifetime exemption at all (IRC § 2503(b)). A married couple can combine exclusions to give $38,000 per recipient per year. Give a child $19,000 every year for ten years and none of it counts against the lifetime exemption, none of it requires a gift tax return, and none of it shows up in the "lifetime gifts already made" figure this calculator asks about.

The annual exclusion and the lifetime exemption solve different problems. The annual exclusion is for steady, modest transfers over time. The lifetime exemption, and the gifting strategies built around it, is for moving larger amounts out of a taxable estate in one or a few transactions, usually with professional guidance on valuation and structure.

California Has No State Estate Tax

California does not impose its own estate tax. Voters repealed the state's estate tax effective June 1982, and it has not been reinstated since. For a California estate, the only estate tax exposure to plan around is federal. That is different from some other states, which layer a state-level estate or inheritance tax on top of the federal one at exemption thresholds far below $15,000,000. It is one less thing to track here, but it also means the federal exemption and its sunset risk carry more weight in California estate planning than they otherwise might.

What This Calculator Does Not Cover

This is a screening tool, not a tax return. It does not account for the marital deduction on assets passing to a surviving spouse, charitable deductions, valuation discounts on closely held business or real estate interests, life insurance held in an irrevocable trust outside the taxable estate, state-specific issues for out-of-state property, or the graduated rate brackets below the 40% top rate. Real estate appraisals, business valuations, and the way assets are titled can all move the actual number meaningfully in either direction.

Related Resources

• Estate planning services at Ridley Law
• Fees for trust and estate planning work