Tax simulator
Estate / gift exposure estimator
Most people are nowhere near owing federal estate tax, but the ones who are want a clear number. Enter your total estate value, marital status, and any large lifetime gifts already made, and this tells you whether you are above the federal exemption, by how much, and the estimated tax on the amount over the line. It is a quick check on whether the estate-tax question applies to you, not an estate plan.
Background reading: Estate & legacy
The exemption is scheduled to change under current law. Plan around the concept that a high-exemption window may not last, not around a specific number or date.
If you are in territory, structuring (trusts, gifting, insurance) is a conversation for a CFP and an estate attorney working together. This screen sizes exposure; it does not design a plan.
Assumptions and simplifications
- Portability is modeled by doubling the per-person exemption for a married reader, not by tracking a deceased spouse's actual unused amount or the required timely election.
- The tax estimate applies the top estate-tax rate flat to the exposed amount; the estate tax is graduated below the top rate, but at exposed-amount sizes that put a reader in territory the top rate dominates.
- State estate and inheritance taxes are not modeled; a reader can be in territory at the state level (which often has a lower threshold) while this federal screen reads not in territory.
- Estate value, owned-insurance inclusion, and lifetime gifts are taken as entered; the marital and charitable deductions, GST tax, valuation discounts, and trust structures are out of scope for a screen.