State estate tax in 2026: the 13 jurisdictions compared

The thirteen schedules for 2026

Each row below was read on the revenue department's page, the return instructions or the statute of the jurisdiction, and each state has its own page on this site with the source cited. The exemption is the amount at which the tax starts for a death in 2026. The method column matters as much as the exemption, because two states with the same threshold can produce very different bills on the same estate.

One estate, thirteen bills

The next table runs the engine of this site on three estate sizes, for an unmarried resident with no lifetime gifts and no property in another state. These are the taxable estates after debts, costs and charitable gifts. They show what a single rate per state hides.

At $5,000,000 the ranking is led by Oregon, Rhode Island and Massachusetts: low exemptions bite hardest on mid-sized estates. At $12,000,000 the order shifts toward the states whose rates climb highest, Washington, Oregon and New York. Connecticut stays at zero across the three sizes, since its threshold equals the federal exclusion. Above that line both governments tax, and the state tax is deducted from the federal base under section 2058 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Why published tables rarely agree

Most charts of state estate taxes are compiled once and updated late. It is still common to find tables quoting 2018 or 2025 figures under a current headline, a federal exemption that is several million dollars too low, or a Connecticut exemption taken from an earlier year. For 2026, 5 jurisdictions moved their exemption: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maine, New York and Rhode Island. Washington moved twice within twelve months, and Kentucky changed its inheritance tax classes. A chart that leaves out one of these updates misstates the tax on the very estates near the threshold, where the error matters most.

A second source of disagreement is method. Several summaries print one percentage per state, for instance a top rate of 16 %, and let readers multiply. That reading is wrong for at least five jurisdictions. Massachusetts and Rhode Island compute a credit from the federal Table B of 2001 and then subtract a fixed amount. Illinois iterates because its tax is deductible from its own base. Maryland compares two computations and keeps the smaller. New York removes its credit as the estate grows past the exemption. The table above is computed, not copied, so each bill follows the state's own worksheet.

Four families of computation

Tax on the excess. Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and Washington apply a schedule to the part of the estate above the exemption. Connecticut and Vermont use a single rate; the others have brackets. Connecticut also caps the combined estate and gift tax at $15,000,000.

Brackets fixed in dollars, starting at the exemption. The District of Columbia and Oregon print a table whose first line opens at the exemption with a tax of zero, while the later lines start at round amounts such as $1,500,000 in Oregon or $5,000,000 in the District. The first band is therefore narrow in the District and wide in Oregon.

The old federal credit. The federal estate tax once gave a credit for state death taxes, read on Table B; section 2058 now gives a deduction instead. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Illinois and Maryland still compute their tax from that table, each with its own adjustment: a fixed credit of $99,600 in Massachusetts and $87,940 in Rhode Island, an interrelated computation in Illinois, a ceiling of 16 % of the excess in Maryland.

The New York cliff. New York uses its own table and a credit that shrinks to zero at 105 % of the exclusion, so an estate slightly above $7,350,000 pays tax from the first dollar. The cliff page shows the band step by step.

Who is taxed: domicile and property

A state taxes the estate of a person domiciled there, meaning the place the person treated as a permanent home, and the real estate and tangible property located there of anyone else. Most states then apportion: they compute the tax as if everything were taxable and multiply it by the share of the gross estate they have jurisdiction over. New York and Massachusetts instead leave property outside their reach out of the base. A resident of a state without an estate tax who owns a vacation home in Oregon or Massachusetts can therefore owe that state's tax; the rules are on property in another state, and the states with no tax at all are listed on states without estate tax.

Couples, gifts and the second death

A transfer to a spouse who is a US citizen is deducted in every jurisdiction, so the first death of a married couple rarely owes state tax. The exposure moves to the second death. Federal portability lets the survivor add the unused federal exclusion, but among the states only Hawaii and Maryland have a comparable rule; New York, Illinois and Washington refuse it in their instructions, and the others publish none. The comparison with and without a trust at the first death is on married couples. Lifetime gifts are the other lever: Connecticut taxes them, New York and Minnesota add back the last three years, Vermont two and Maine one (gifts and state estate tax).

A return can be due when no tax is

Filing thresholds usually look at the gross estate, before the marital and charitable deductions, sometimes with lifetime gifts added. An estate that leaves everything to a surviving spouse can therefore have to file in Massachusetts, Maryland or Maine while owing nothing. Deadlines run from nine months after death in most states to 6 months in Connecticut, 10 months in the District and 12 months in Oregon; the full calendar, federal return included, is on estate tax return deadlines. Everything here is an estimate built to compare situations, not a substitute for the return or for an estate attorney's reading of a particular estate.