51-jurisdiction registry · IRS SOI national filing year 2024 | federal exemption 2026 | Tax Foundation 2024 state survey
Estate-tax registry key findings
Counts compiled from PlainEstate's 51-jurisdiction table (50 states plus DC), the current-law federal exemption table, and the IRS SOI national filing series. Three populations, labeled separately. Registry facts only; not estate-planning advice.
Data updated 2024-12-31
- 13
- estate-tax jurisdictions
- 33
- with neither death tax
- $15M
- federal exemption (2026)
- 2024
- latest SOI filing year
51-jurisdiction registry · IRS SOI national filing year 2024 | federal exemption 2026 | Tax Foundation 2024 state survey
PlainEstate lists 13 of 51 jurisdictions with a state estate tax. 33 levy neither estate nor inheritance tax. The current-law federal exemption in 2026 is $15M.
- 13
- estate-tax rows
- 33
- neither death tax
- 6
- inheritance-tax rows
- $15M
- federal 2026
According to the Tax Foundation 2024 state survey plus the current-law federal table. IRS SOI filing years are a separate population. See methodology.
According to the Tax Foundation 2024 state survey as compiled in this registry, 13 of 51 jurisdictions levy a state estate tax and 33 levy neither an estate tax nor an inheritance tax. The current-law federal exemption for 2026 is $15M. Read the methodology for how the three populations are dated.
Key findings
Standalone, citable statements from this registry. Reuse with attribution to PlainEstate.
- 13 of 51 jurisdictions in this registry levy a state estate tax under current-law statutes (Tax Foundation 2024 survey). This is a catalog count of 50 states plus DC, not a ranking of tax burden.
- 33 of 51 jurisdictions levy neither a state estate tax nor a state inheritance tax in this survey. 6 levy an inheritance tax. 12 levy an estate tax only.
- Maryland is the only jurisdiction in this registry that levies both a state estate tax and a state inheritance tax (1 of 51).
- $1M is Oregon's estate-tax exemption, the lowest among the 13 estate-tax jurisdictions in this survey. Exemption is a statutory threshold, not a typical estate size.
- 20% top rate is a tie: Washington and Hawaii (2 of 13 estate-tax jurisdictions). 9 use 16%. 2 (Maine and Connecticut) use 12%. Top rate applies above each state's own exemption.
- $15M is the current-law federal estate-tax exemption in 2026, with a 40% top rate. This federal table is a separate population from the IRS SOI filing-year series below.
- 7,195 estate-tax returns were filed in IRS SOI filing year 2024, compared with 9,024 in 2023. 2,663 were taxable. Total tax was $23.31 billion. Filing year is not the current-law statute year.
- $164-$1,250 is the range of maximum probate court filing fees among 51 published schedules in this registry (Colorado low, New York high). Court filing fee is not attorney cost and not total probate cost.
Death-tax mix in this registry
Count of the 51 jurisdictions by current-law estate-tax and inheritance-tax flags. Maryland is the both-tax row. Not a claim about household tax paid.
Top rates among estate-tax rows
Washington and Hawaii tie at 20%. Counts are of the 13 estate-tax jurisdictions, not of all 51.
Source: Tax Foundation state estate and inheritance tax survey; IRS Statistics of Income PlainEstate 51-jurisdiction registry plus national SOI filing series · 2024 State statutory flags are the 2024 survey. Federal exemption is the current-law table. SOI figures are filing-year counts. Do not treat them as one vintage.
How to read these numbers
This page reports three separately dated populations: IRS SOI national filing years 2017/2024, the current-law federal exemption table (2026), and the Tax Foundation 2024 state survey plus published court-fee schedules. Ratios that would mix those years are not computed here. Download the CSV or open a state page. The national SOI series also sits on estate-return trends.
What this registry is for
These 51 rows are the same jurisdiction table behind the state pages.
- Open a state page for the vintage-stamped exemption, rate, and probate-fee ordinals. All states
- Download the jurisdiction table as CSV for reuse with attribution. CSV download
- See how PlainEstate dates the three populations. Methodology
This page reports registry counts. It is not legal or tax advice and not a plan for any household.
Every figure on PlainEstate is rendered directly from IRS Statistics of Income and state statutory data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page's Key Findings are aggregates over the states table, federal_estate_tax, and irs_soi_estate_stats. National SOI filing years, the current-law federal table, and the 2024 state survey are labeled separately. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error about this page. Data current as of IRS SOI national filing year 2024 | federal exemption 2026 | Tax Foundation 2024 state survey.