Includes your inputs and results for this calculation, plus any additional calculations you've compared.
Share & Print
The link includes your inputs and results, so anyone who opens it sees this exact calculation.
Good to Know
The federal estate tax exemption amount changes through legislation and annual inflation indexing — verify the current figure against the IRS's own published amount rather than trusting this calculator's default. This also doesn't model marital deduction/exemption portability between spouses, state-level estate or inheritance taxes (many states have their own, often with much lower exemptions), or estate-planning tools like trusts that can reduce a taxable estate.
Disclaimer
This calculator provides estimates for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, medical, legal, or tax advice. Always consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.
How This Calculator Works
The federal estate tax only applies to the portion of an estate’s value above a large
exemption amount — most estates never owe it at all. Enter the total estate value and the
current federal exemption amount, and this calculator estimates the tax owed and what heirs would
actually receive.
The exemption amount is set by federal law and adjusted for inflation, and it changes often
enough through legislation that this calculator treats it as a plain, editable input rather than
a fixed fact — always verify the current exemption amount against the IRS’s own published
figures before relying on this estimate, since the number used here may not reflect the current
tax year.
The real federal estate tax technically uses a graduated bracket structure, but because the
exemption amount is so large, any estate that owes federal tax at all has already cleared the
brackets’ own threshold for the top 40% rate — so in practice, the amount above the exemption is
taxed at a flat 40%. This is the same simplification most public estate-tax estimates use.
Worked Example
A $2,000,000 estate with a $13,990,000 exemption — a realistic scenario for a financially
comfortable household, not just the ultra-wealthy:
Taxable estate: max(0, $2,000,000 − $13,990,000) = $0 — the estate’s entire value falls
well under the exemption, so nothing is taxable.
Estate tax owed: $0 × 40% = $0.
Net to heirs: $2,000,000 − $0 = $2,000,000 — the full estate passes to heirs, since it
never crossed the exemption threshold in the first place.
A larger estate that does cross the exemption looks different: a $20,000,000 estate against
the same $13,990,000 exemption owes tax on the $6,010,000 above it — $6,010,000 × 40% =
$2,404,000 owed, leaving $17,596,000 net to heirs.
Cómo funciona esta calculadora
El impuesto federal sobre el patrimonio solo se aplica a la parte del valor de un patrimonio que
supera un monto de exención elevado — la mayoría de los patrimonios nunca lo deben. Ingresa el
valor total del patrimonio y el monto de exención federal vigente, y esta calculadora estima el
impuesto adeudado y lo que los herederos realmente recibirían.
El monto de exención lo establece la ley federal y se ajusta por inflación, y cambia con la
frecuencia suficiente mediante legislación como para que esta calculadora lo trate como un dato
editable en lugar de un valor fijo — verifica siempre el monto de exención actual con las
cifras publicadas oficialmente por el IRS antes de basarte en esta estimación, ya que el número
usado aquí podría no reflejar el año fiscal actual.
La fórmula
Impuesto sucesorio adeudado=max(0,Valor del patrimonio−Monto de exencioˊn)×40%
El impuesto federal sobre el patrimonio en realidad utiliza una estructura de tramos progresivos,
pero debido a que el monto de exención es tan elevado, cualquier patrimonio que llegue a deber
impuesto federal ya ha superado el umbral de los tramos correspondiente a la tasa máxima del 40%
— así que, en la práctica, el monto que excede la exención se grava a una tasa fija del 40%. Esta
es la misma simplificación que utilizan la mayoría de las estimaciones públicas del impuesto sobre
el patrimonio.
Ejemplo resuelto
Un patrimonio de $2,000,000 con una exención de $13,990,000 — un escenario realista para un
hogar con buena situación financiera, no solo para los ultra ricos:
Patrimonio gravable: max(0, $2,000,000 − $13,990,000) = $0 — el valor total del patrimonio
queda muy por debajo de la exención, así que no hay nada gravable.
Impuesto sobre el patrimonio adeudado: $0 × 40% = $0.
Neto para los herederos: $2,000,000 − $0 = $2,000,000 — el patrimonio completo pasa a los
herederos, ya que nunca superó el umbral de exención.
Un patrimonio más grande que sí supera la exención se ve distinto: un patrimonio de
$20,000,000 frente a la misma exención de $13,990,000 debe impuesto sobre los $6,010,000
que la superan — $6,010,000 × 40% = $2,404,000 adeudados, dejando $17,596,000 netos para
los herederos.
Do most people need to worry about federal estate tax?
No — the federal exemption is large enough (multiple millions of dollars per person) that the vast majority of estates owe no federal estate tax at all. It's a concern primarily for high-net-worth estates.
Are state estate taxes different from federal estate tax?
Yes, and separately calculated — a number of states impose their own estate or inheritance tax with exemption amounts often far lower than the federal one, meaning an estate that owes nothing federally could still owe state tax. Check your specific state's rules.
Can a married couple combine their exemptions?
Often yes, through a concept called portability — if the first spouse to die doesn't use their full exemption, the unused portion can, with the right election, carry over to the surviving spouse's own estate. This calculator doesn't model that combined-exemption calculation directly.
We use cookies for analytics and ads to help support this free site. You can accept all, or decline and we'll only use what's needed for the site to work.