This calculator answers one question: how much will a single heir owe? Pick the state where the person who died lived, choose how the heir was related, and enter the value that heir receives. It returns the bill, the effective rate, the exemption applied, and what the heir keeps, using the class schedules each revenue department publishes. The default is a New Jersey sibling receiving $250,000, who owes $24,750.
An inheritance tax is a charge on the right to receive property from someone who died, billed to each heir by relationship and share size. Only five states levy inheritance taxes on 2026 deaths: Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Iowa, long the sixth, ended its version for deaths on or after January 1, 2025. Nothing similar exists at the federal level.
Inheritance Tax Calculator
Estimate the state inheritance tax one heir owes in Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, based on the heir's relationship class and the value received.
Estimates apply the Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania schedules in force for deaths in 2026 to one heir of a resident decedent. Nonresident rules, life insurance and retirement plan exclusions, farmland relief, and future or contingent interests are not modeled. Laws change by statute; check with the state revenue office or the county before filing. This is an educational tool, not tax or legal advice.
States With Estate or Inheritance Taxes in 2026
A state with an inheritance tax bills the heir, not the estate, and a surviving spouse pays nothing in any of the five. Here’s how each one treats everyone else:
- Kentucky: spouses, parents, children, grandchildren, and siblings are exempt. Nieces, nephews, in-law children, aunts, and uncles pay 4% to 16%; cousins and friends pay 6% to 16%.
- Maryland: a flat 10% for anyone outside the immediate family, siblings, stepchildren, and a child’s spouse.
- Nebraska: 1%, 11%, or 15%, each above a per-heir exemption, and nothing at all for heirs under 22.
- New Jersey: children and parents are exempt; siblings pay 11% to 16% after $25,000; nieces, nephews, and friends pay 15% to 16%.
- Pennsylvania: a 4.5 percent tax on children and other lineal heirs, 12% on siblings, and a 15 percent tax on everyone else.
How many states levy one or the other? Add the states that levy estate taxes and you get 16 states and the District of Columbia that levy an estate or inheritance tax. Before Iowa’s repeal the count was 17 states and the District. Maryland is the only state that imposes an inheritance tax and also levies an estate tax. Everywhere else, heirs owe nothing at the state level for an inheritance, and 34 states without an estate or inheritance levy leave families with federal rules alone.
State Inheritance Tax Rates and Exemptions by Heir Class
Each of the five sorts heirs into classes, and the class sets both the exemption and the rate. The table condenses every schedule (K = thousand, M = million):
| State | Pays nothing | Middle class | Everyone else |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | Class A: spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, siblings | Class B (nieces, nephews, sons- and daughters-in-law, aunts, uncles, great-grandchildren): $1K exemption, 4% to 16% | Class C: $500 exemption, 6% to 16% |
| Maryland | Spouse, lineal heirs, stepchildren, siblings, a child’s spouse | Not used | 10% of the whole share once it tops $1K |
| Nebraska | Surviving spouse; any heir under 22 | Class 1 (parents, children, siblings, grandchildren, and their spouses): 1% over $100K. Class 2 (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews): 11% over $40K | Class 3: 15% over $25K |
| New Jersey | Class A: spouse or partner, children, stepchildren, grandchildren, parents, grandparents | Class C (siblings, a child’s spouse): first $25K free, then 11%, 13%, 14%, and 16% | Class D: 15% up to $700K, 16% above; shares under $500 go untouched |
| Pennsylvania | Spouse; a parent inheriting from a child 21 or younger, and the reverse | Lineal heirs 4.5%; siblings 12% | 15%, with no exemption |
New Jersey’s Class C slices run $1.075M at 11%, then $300K at 13%, $300K at 14%, and 16% above $1.7M. None of these rates is indexed for inflation. They move only when a legislature acts, which is why the calculator carries a rules year and gets rechecked each January. We compared every figure against the publishing agency: the Kentucky Department of Revenue guide, the Maryland Register of Wills, Nebraska statutes 77-2004 through 77-2006, the New Jersey Division of Taxation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.
The Kentucky bracket table
Kentucky’s guide prints its graduated brackets as a base amount plus a percentage of the share above each floor:
| Share received | Class B owes | Class C owes |
|---|---|---|
| $500 to $1K | $0 | 6% over $500 |
| $1K to $10K | 4% over $1K | $30 plus 6% over $1K |
| $10K to $20K | $360 plus 5% | $570 plus 8% |
| $20K to $30K | $860 plus 6% | $1,370 plus 10% |
| $30K to $45K | $1,460 plus 8% | $2,370 plus 12% |
| $45K to $60K | $2,660 plus 10% | $4,170 plus 14% |
| $60K to $100K | $4,160 plus 12% | $6,270 plus 16% |
| $100K to $200K | $8,960 plus 14% | $12,670 plus 16% |
| Over $200K | $22,960 plus 16% | $28,670 plus 16% |
Each percentage applies to the amount above the row’s floor. The exemption is already built in, so don’t subtract $1,000 or $500 first; doing that understates the bill.
What a $250,000 Inheritance Costs in Each State
We ran one $250,000 share through every schedule for four common heirs (the Nebraska column assumes the heir is 22 or older):
| Heir | KY | MD | NE | NJ | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child | $0 | $0 | $1,500 | $0 | $11,250 |
| Sibling | $0 | $0 | $1,500 | $24,750 | $30K |
| Niece or nephew | $30,960 | $25K | $23,100 | $37,500 | $37,500 |
| Friend | $36,670 | $25K | $33,750 | $37,500 | $37,500 |
A brother in Pennsylvania loses $30K where a brother in Kentucky or Maryland loses nothing, and only Pennsylvania charges a grown child. The default calculator result reproduces the New Jersey sibling cell: the first $25,000 passes free and the remaining $225,000 is charged 11%, for $24,750 and an effective rate of 9.90%. That matches the worked example in the New Jersey Division of Taxation’s own return instructions, which is how we checked the math.
Estate and Inheritance Taxes: Who Writes the Check?
An estate tax is a tax on property still held in the total estate before anything is distributed, and the executor handles it during estate administration. An inheritance tax is levied on what each heir receives instead, so two children of the same parent can owe very different amounts. Put simply, the estate tax is levied once, at the top; the heir’s version is charged share by share.
The federal estate tax exemption amount for 2026 deaths is $15 million, per the IRS, up from $13.99 million in 2025. The estate tax applies only where an estate exceeds that line, and it’s charged on the value of the estate above it, so a $16 million estate pays on about $1 million. The top estate tax rate is 40%, the highest estate tax bracket in the federal schedule. Heirs of a family no greater than the federal estate threshold can still owe the five heir-level levies above, since those ignore the federal exemption entirely.
An inheritance isn’t income, so it doesn’t go on your federal income tax return. The exception people trip over is a traditional retirement account, taxed as it’s withdrawn; our inherited IRA RMD calculator covers that side of the bill.
States With an Estate Tax, and Maryland’s Double Exposure
Twelve states tax estates directly: 12 states and the District of Columbia levy an estate tax. They are Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. The states that impose estate levies set their own thresholds and schedules, so don’t equate a state’s exemption to the federal one. Maryland’s is $5 million, and its bill is capped at 16% of the amount above it.
That makes Maryland the place to watch. A Maryland estate that exceeds $5 million can owe that levy, and a nephew’s share still owes the 10% heir charge. Our estate calculator figures the amount of estate tax owed to the IRS. Any state that imposes an estate tax runs its own schedule on top, and this page and its calculator stick to the heir.
Most charts on this topic trace back to the Tax Foundation’s map of 2025 state estate tax rates and heir rates. Planners also keep a state estate and gift tax cheat sheet for clients with homes in two states. Check the date on any of them: a sheet printed before Iowa’s repeal still lists six states that levy an inheritance tax.
How the Federal Credit Built, Then Shrank, State Death Taxes
For decades a federal credit let estates subtract state death taxes from the federal bill, dollar for dollar. Most state levies were tied to the federal one, so a state could collect without costing its residents anything extra. A 2001 law, EGTRRA, phased that federal tax credit out and swapped in a deduction for deaths after 2004.
From then on, state-level estate taxes would cost residents real money for the first time, and states linked to the federal code lost that revenue automatically. Kentucky shows how it played out: its state death tax on estates was defined as the unused credit, so it has been zero since January 1, 2005, while the heir-level levy kept running. A handful of states rewrote their state tax systems to keep collecting; others decided eliminating the tax was worth the lost tax revenue. The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center’s briefing book covers that history in more depth.
States could keep a levy only by writing their own rules, and states may still change course. New Jersey dropped its estate levy for deaths on or after January 1, 2018 but kept charging heirs. Nebraska cut its rates for deaths from 2023: the Class 1 exemption rose from $40,000 to $100,000, Class 2 fell from 13% to 11%, and Class 3 fell from 18% to 15%. Iowa phased its version down and then ended it.
Rules Most State-by-State Charts Leave Out
These details change real bills, and most ranking pages skip them:
- Maryland’s $1,000 rule is all or nothing. A share of $1,000 or less passes free; at $1,001 the 10% hits the whole amount.
- New Jersey’s Class D floor works the same way. Under $500 goes untouched; at $500 the 15% applies from the first dollar.
- Nebraska’s age rule beats every class. Property passing to anyone under 22 is exempt, a change that took effect with 2023 deaths.
- Pennsylvania has no per-heir exemption. Only a $3,500 family exemption exists, and a 5% discount applies when the bill is paid within three months of death.
- Deadlines differ. Kentucky allows 5% off if paid within nine months, with the tax return due within 18 months. Pennsylvania’s bill turns delinquent after nine months.
- Location matters. The state that imposes the bill is normally the one where the decedent lived, but land is charged where it sits. Kentucky’s tax is imposed on Kentucky real property owned by a nonresident, and it’s paid to the state where that deed is recorded.
- The base is the share, not the taxable estate. Each of the five measures what one heir receives after allowed debts and expenses, not the federal return’s figure.
Planning Moves That Minimize Tax Liability for Heirs
Tax avoidance here means arranging who receives what, not hiding anything.
- Name the right beneficiaries. Leaving a taxed relative a smaller share and a spouse or child a larger one moves money into an exempt class.
- Use life insurance. Maryland exempts insurance paid to a named beneficiary, and a policy can cover a nephew’s bill.
- Give during life, early. Under federal estate and gift rules the 2026 annual exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, but Kentucky may reach gifts made within three years of death, and Maryland looks back two years.
- Leave some to charity. Qualified charities are exempt in all five states.
Start with the calculator above: run each heir separately under the state where the decedent lived, then compare the totals against a revised plan. If any heir lands in a charged class, bring these inheritance tax by state figures to an estate attorney before the next will review, because the tax rules and deadlines differ in every one of them.
Quick Answers on Estate and Inheritance Taxes
How much can you inherit without owing anything? Spouses never pay. Children pay nothing in Kentucky, Maryland, and New Jersey, and nothing on the first $100,000 in Nebraska; Pennsylvania charges them 4.5% from the first dollar.
Does the IRS take a cut of an inheritance? No. The federal and state systems split here: the IRS taxes large estates, never heirs.
Is it charged every tax year? No. It’s a one-time bill on the transfer, not a levy on income.
Rules reviewed September 2026: we checked the state estate and inheritance taxes on this page against each revenue department and the IRS. Figures apply to deaths in 2026 and change only by statute. The calculator estimates one heir’s bill for a resident decedent. This page is educational and is not tax advice or legal advice.