State-by-State Estate & Inheritance Tax

The comparison table

Each jurisdiction is added to this table only after its figures have been checked against a primary source — the state statute or the state department of revenue — so the table grows deliberately rather than all at once. It currently covers 51 of 51 jurisdictions (the 50 states and the District of Columbia): 13 with a state estate tax and 5 with an inheritance tax among those verified so far. Every jurisdiction name links to its own page, where the rate schedule, the inheritance classes, and the probate details are spelled out in full.

Every tax figure in the table links to the primary source it was verified against, with that source’s own effective date. A cell marked “verify with the state” is one we could not confirm from a primary source at the time of writing — we flag it rather than print a number we cannot stand behind.

Estate tax vs. inheritance tax

The two are constantly confused, and the difference decides who pays.

• An estate tax is levied on the estate itself, before anything is distributed — the estate files and pays, and the rate depends on the size of the estate. Twelve states and the District of Columbia have one; the federal government has one too, with a far higher exclusion.
• An inheritance tax is levied on the people who receive — each beneficiary’s share is taxed, and the rate usually depends on how closely related they were to the deceased. A surviving spouse is almost always exempt; a distant relative or a friend usually is not. A small number of states have one.

How to read this table

The exemption is the amount an estate can be worth before the estate tax applies at all; several states have a cliff, where crossing the exemption taxes the whole estate rather than only the excess, and those quirks are called out on the individual state pages. The top rate is the marginal rate on the largest estates, not a flat rate. The small-estate ceiling is the value below which heirs can usually skip full probate and use a simplified affidavit or summary process — a probate figure, not a tax one, included because it is the number most families actually need.

A blank tax cell (“—”) means the state has no such tax, not that the figure is unknown. Deadlines for the probate process itself — when the will must be filed, the creditor-claim window, the inventory — live in the Executor & Heir’s Guide, which carries the cited statute for all fifty states.

Probate, TOD deeds & community property

Each state page also covers three things that shape what actually passes and how: whether the state offers a transfer-on-death (TOD) deed for real estate — a way to pass a house outside probate — whether it is a community-property state, which affects both spousal ownership and the basis step-up heirs receive, and the small-estate path above. None of that is tax advice; it is the structural map a family or a professional can check against the statute.

If you want a professional to work through your own state’s rules, our directory of estate-planning professionals lists people you can verify yourself — no one pays for placement.

Sources & methodology