Which exclusion amount does this use?

The 2024 basic exclusion of $13,610,000, set by IRS Revenue Procedure 2023-34. The figure is indexed annually and rose to $13,990,000 for 2025 under Revenue Procedure 2024-40, but this page has no year selector and always applies the 2024 amount.

Is the estate tax really 40 percent of everything?

No, and that is the most common misconception about it. The 40% rate applies only to value above the exclusion, so an estate of $15,000,000 pays an effective rate under 4% because the first $13,610,000 is excluded entirely.

Does it account for a surviving spouse?

No. Transfers to a US citizen spouse generally qualify for an unlimited marital deduction, and a surviving spouse can often claim the deceased spouse unused exclusion through a portability election on a timely Form 706. Neither is modelled, so married estates are overstated.

What about lifetime gifts?

Taxable gifts made during life reduce the exclusion available at death, since the federal system is unified across gift and estate tax. This calculator applies the full exclusion regardless of gifting history, so anyone who has filed gift tax returns has less available.

Are state estate or inheritance taxes included?

No. Several states impose their own estate tax, sometimes with thresholds far below the federal exclusion, and a few impose an inheritance tax on the recipient instead. Only federal tax is calculated on this page.

Which deductions are missing?

Debts, mortgages, funeral and administration expenses, and charitable bequests all reduce a taxable estate, and none of them have an input here. If those are material, subtract them from the gross value before entering it.

Does the exclusion change soon?

The elevated exclusion introduced by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is scheduled to revert to a lower inflation-adjusted level, so estates comfortably below the threshold today may not be later. Because this tool is fixed to 2024, it cannot show that scenario directly.

Does this cover estates outside the United States?

No. It implements US federal estate tax only. Pakistan has no federal estate or inheritance tax of this kind, and TaxEase paid services for Pakistani clients cover entirely different filings under FBR and SECP rules.

Federal Estate Tax Calculator with 2024 Exemption Limit

Federal Estate Tax Calculator with 2024 Exemption LimitThe Estate Tax Calculator is a free browser-based tool that estimates US federal estate tax by subtracting the basic exclusion amount from a gross estate and applying the flat 40% rate to whatever remains. Federal estate tax is widely misunderstood as a tax on the whole estate; it is a tax on the excess above a very large exclusion, which is why the effective rate this tool reports is always far below 40%. Enter the total fair market value of all assets and the calculator returns the exclusion used, the taxable estate, the tax due, and the effective rate measured against the full estate.

What people use it for

A business owner sizing a liquidity problem

A founder whose company represents most of an estate wants to know whether heirs would face a cash bill they cannot pay without selling the business itself. A gross estate above the exclusion produces a concrete number, and that number is usually what life insurance or a buy-sell agreement is sized against during succession planning.

Confirming an estate falls below the threshold

A retired couple with a paid-off home and retirement accounts suspects the whole topic simply does not apply to them but has never checked. Entering the combined value returns zero tax and shows how much headroom remains, which is a faster answer than booking a consultation and frequently ends the question permanently.

Watching the scheduled exclusion reduction

An adviser explaining that the elevated exclusion is scheduled to fall runs the same estate against a much lower figure to show the difference in cash terms. The comparison turns an abstract legislative date into a dollar amount, which is what actually motivates gifting or trust planning while the higher exclusion still applies.

Valuing a planned charitable bequest

Someone considering leaving a portion of an estate to charity wants a rough sense of the scale involved before speaking to a lawyer. Running the estate before and after a planned bequest shows how the taxable amount shrinks, though the deduction has to be applied by hand because the page has no field for it.

How it works

Enter the gross estate value The total fair market value of everything owned at death, including property, investments, business interests, and life insurance proceeds payable to the estate, before any deduction is applied to it.
Press Calculate Estate Tax The tool subtracts the exclusion from the gross estate and treats a negative result as zero, so an estate under the threshold simply returns no tax at all rather than a meaningless negative figure.
Read the exclusion card It shows the 2024 basic exclusion amount of $13,610,000. The page carries no year selector, so this is the figure applied to every calculation on it regardless of the year you have in mind.
Read the taxable estate The amount above the exclusion, which is the only part exposed to tax at all. In most estates this figure is either zero or a small fraction of the total value, which is the point worth taking away.
Compare the tax to the effective rate The flat 40% applies only to the taxable estate, so the effective rate measured against the full gross estate is much lower and is the more honest planning number to quote to a family.

Worked examples

Input: Gross estate: $15,000,000

Result: Exclusion $13,610,000, taxable estate $1,390,000, estate tax $556,000, effective rate 3.71%. Only about 9% of the estate is exposed at all, which is exactly why the headline 40% rate and the real burden look so different.

Input: Gross estate: $12,000,000

Result: Exclusion $13,610,000, taxable estate $0, estate tax $0, effective rate 0.00%. The estate sits comfortably below the threshold with $1,610,000 of unused exclusion still available against future growth.

Input: Gross estate: $20,000,000

Result: Taxable estate $6,390,000, estate tax $2,556,000, effective rate 12.78%. Against the $15,000,000 run the estate grew by a third while the tax more than quadrupled, because every dollar above the exclusion is taxed at the full 40%.

Frequently asked questions

Which exclusion amount does this use?: The 2024 basic exclusion of $13,610,000, set by IRS Revenue Procedure 2023-34. The figure is indexed annually and rose to $13,990,000 for 2025 under Revenue Procedure 2024-40, but this page has no year selector and always applies the 2024 amount.
Is the estate tax really 40 percent of everything?: No, and that is the most common misconception about it. The 40% rate applies only to value above the exclusion, so an estate of $15,000,000 pays an effective rate under 4% because the first $13,610,000 is excluded entirely.
Does it account for a surviving spouse?: No. Transfers to a US citizen spouse generally qualify for an unlimited marital deduction, and a surviving spouse can often claim the deceased spouse unused exclusion through a portability election on a timely Form 706. Neither is modelled, so married estates are overstated.
What about lifetime gifts?: Taxable gifts made during life reduce the exclusion available at death, since the federal system is unified across gift and estate tax. This calculator applies the full exclusion regardless of gifting history, so anyone who has filed gift tax returns has less available.
Are state estate or inheritance taxes included?: No. Several states impose their own estate tax, sometimes with thresholds far below the federal exclusion, and a few impose an inheritance tax on the recipient instead. Only federal tax is calculated on this page.
Which deductions are missing?: Debts, mortgages, funeral and administration expenses, and charitable bequests all reduce a taxable estate, and none of them have an input here. If those are material, subtract them from the gross value before entering it.
Does the exclusion change soon?: The elevated exclusion introduced by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is scheduled to revert to a lower inflation-adjusted level, so estates comfortably below the threshold today may not be later. Because this tool is fixed to 2024, it cannot show that scenario directly.
Does this cover estates outside the United States?: No. It implements US federal estate tax only. Pakistan has no federal estate or inheritance tax of this kind, and TaxEase paid services for Pakistani clients cover entirely different filings under FBR and SECP rules.

Tips

Include life insurance in the gross estate when the policy is owned by the deceased or payable to the estate. It is the asset most often left out, and it is frequently large enough to change the answer completely.
Subtract debts, mortgages, and administration expenses from the value you enter, because the page has no field for them and will otherwise tax money the estate never actually keeps.
For a married couple, model each spouse separately rather than as one combined estate. The marital deduction and portability usually make the combined figure here far too pessimistic to be useful.
Recheck the exclusion for the year that matters to you. The tool is pinned to 2024, and both inflation indexing and scheduled legislative change move the threshold over time.

Written by Ahsan Mahmood. Last updated 2026-07-21. This calculator runs entirely in your browser and produces estimates, not tax advice.TaxEase — Federal Estate Tax Calculator with 2024 Exemption Limit