{"slug":"us-estate-tax-exemption","name":"US Federal Estate-Tax Exposure (2026 — the sunset that didn’t happen)","category":"grow","tags":["tax","planning"],"region":"US","tagline":"Whether your estate owes federal estate tax under the permanent $15M exclusion — and what the “2026 sunset” answer would have wrongly told you.","endpoint":"https://xearno.tools/api/v1/tools/us-estate-tax-exemption","page":"https://xearno.tools/t/us-estate-tax-exemption","description":"Computes federal estate-tax exposure under the 2026 rules: a flat $15,000,000 basic exclusion per person, made PERMANENT by OBBBA §70106 — the long-scheduled TCJA sunset to ~$7M never happened, but AI trained before mid-2025 still tells you it did. Accounts for lifetime taxable gifts already made (they consume the unified exclusion) and a deceased spouse’s unused exclusion (DSUE) via portability. Shows the prior-law contrast so you can see exactly how much the “sunset” answer would have overstated your tax, and flags the separate state-level estate taxes (12 states + DC, thresholds from $1M) that the federal all-clear does not cover.","inputSchema":{"type":"object","properties":{"estateValue":{"description":"Gross estate value ($) Everything you own at death — real estate, investments, retirement accounts, business interests, life-insurance proceeds you own. Use today’s value as an estimate.","type":"number","minimum":0,"default":8000000},"maritalStatus":{"description":"Marital / portability situation DSUE (deceased spousal unused exclusion) only counts if a Form 706 was filed for the deceased spouse to elect portability — it is not automatic.","type":"string","enum":["single","widowed-with-DSUE"],"default":"single"},"dsueAmount":{"description":"DSUE amount from deceased spouse ($) The unused exclusion ported from your deceased spouse (from their Form 706). Only applies with the “surviving spouse with elected DSUE” status above.","type":"number","minimum":0,"default":0},"lifetimeGiftsUsed":{"description":"Lifetime taxable gifts already made ($) Cumulative gifts above the annual exclusion ($19,000/recipient in 2026) reported on gift-tax returns. These consume your unified exclusion before death.","type":"number","minimum":0,"default":0},"state":{"description":"Does your state levy its own estate tax? WA, OR, MN, IL, MD, MA, RI, CT, VT, NY, ME, HI + DC levy their own estate tax with thresholds far below $15M (Oregon starts at $1M). This tool flags it but computes federal only.","type":"string","enum":["no-estate-tax","has-estate-tax"],"default":"no-estate-tax"}},"required":[],"additionalProperties":false},"methodology":["Exclusion: the 2026 basic exclusion amount is a flat $15,000,000 per person — OBBBA §70106 (enacted July 2025) struck the TCJA sunset that would have reverted it to roughly $7M on 1 Jan 2026, and Rev. Proc. 2025-32 confirms the 2026 figure. It is permanent; inflation indexing resumes in 2027. The 2025 figure was $13.99M.","Tax: federal tax = 40% × max(0, taxable estate − available exclusion), where available exclusion = $15M − lifetime taxable gifts already made + any DSUE. This is a deliberate simplification of the graduated 18–40% schedule: the brackets below $1M are fully absorbed by the unified credit, so for estates above the exclusion the marginal and effective rate on the excess is 40%.","Portability: a surviving spouse may add the deceased spouse’s unused exclusion (DSUE), but only by electing it on a timely filed Form 706 for the first death — due 9 months after death plus extensions, even when no tax is due. Rev. Proc. 2022-32 provides a simplified late election up to 5 years after death for estates not otherwise required to file.","Gifts: the 2026 annual gift-tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient; gifts above it consume the unified exclusion (reported on Form 709) and are modeled here as reducing the exclusion available at death. There is no clawback for gifts made under earlier, lower exclusions.","Prior-law contrast: the “sunset” line reruns the same formula on a ~$7,000,000 exclusion (the approximate inflation-indexed half of the TCJA amount that 1 Jan 2026 would have brought), with any DSUE clamped to that level. It is approximate by design — its job is to show what the widely repeated pre-2025 answer would have said.","Out of scope: state estate and inheritance taxes (12 states + DC levy an estate tax, thresholds from $1M; several other states levy inheritance taxes on recipients), valuation discounts, marital and charitable deductions, GST tax, and non-citizen-spouse rules. The gross estate value you enter is used as the taxable estate."],"usage":"POST https://xearno.tools/api/v1/tools/us-estate-tax-exemption with a JSON body matching inputSchema."}