Where Should I Live When I Die?
Twelve states and the District of Columbia still tax estates. Five tax the people who inherit. One does it by county. The federal exclusion is $15 million — most state exclusions are nowhere near it, which is why the state line usually matters more than the federal one. Put in a number and see what each address would cost.
02The bill where you are now
03The same estate, every address
Total death tax on this estate if you were domiciled in each state, shaded by quartile. Tap or hover a state for the breakdown. The eight states with no death tax at all are the pale band at the bottom.
04Two states, head to head
Estate taxes are levied by the state, not the city, so there is no city layer to compare — with the one exception of Nebraska, where the county assesses it.
Tax only — what passes to your heirs would dwarf it on the same scale and hide the difference. It is in the table below.
05How the bill grows with the estate
Total death tax across estate size. The kinks are where exemptions run out; the vertical jump on New York is the cliff.
06What each state actually does
Exemptions marked indexed move every year. Portability means a surviving spouse can use what the first spouse did not — most states do not allow it, and that is the most expensive thing on this page.
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” — Franklin, 1789. He did not mention that they arrive together.