Reference
Calculation Methodology & Coverage
Updated 1 primary source citedEditorial policy
Start with prepared return amounts
These worksheets apply published tax calculations to amounts the user has already prepared. They do not value assets, decide domicile or determine eligibility for deductions, elections or relationship classes. Each tool describes its covered return, date range and exclusions above its fields.
A blank required amount remains unresolved. Enter zero only after confirming that the item does not apply. The confirmation checkbox acknowledges the stated scope; it does not independently establish legal eligibility.
Federal and state calculations are separate
The federal tool uses the 2026 Form 706 rate table, adjusted taxable gifts, prepared gift tax, exclusion credit, other prepared credits and state death-tax deduction. A spouse's unused exclusion is entered only when confirmed. The tool does not infer portability from marital status.
State worksheets follow their own calculations. Illinois uses an interrelated calculation; New York phases out an exclusion credit; Maryland compares a state limitation with available federal-credit calculations and paid credits. Washington selects its schedule by the 2026 date of death. These mechanisms cannot be replaced by one national rate multiplied by an estate value.
Beneficiary taxes require different inputs
Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania use beneficiary-specific rules. The worksheets identify covered relationships, age conditions, exemptions and payment adjustments. New Jersey and Pennsylvania allow separate beneficiary entries. Nonresident, trust, contingent-interest and tax-paid-by-another arrangements are covered only where the individual page expressly says so.
Rounding and payment credits
Allocation precision follows the cited return: some states round a fraction before calculating tax, while others use the unrounded fraction. Each page states its display precision. Payments and eligible credits are separate fields; an estimated gross liability is not automatically the balance still due.
How calculations are checked
Each worksheet is held to a set of sample estates whose answers were worked out from the cited return or the agency's published example: an estate exactly at a bracket edge, one just over the exclusion, one split between states, and the special cases the page names. The same samples are entered into the page's own form, blanks included, to confirm it reaches the same figure or refuses to answer. Matching samples catch arithmetic slips; they do not prove that every family or property arrangement is supported.
Coverage of all 50 states
The state directory links all 50 dedicated state profiles: 16 with scoped state models and 34 with primary-source executor guides and a federal worksheet. The no-tax directory explains historical dates and administrative differences. Each profile distinguishes the local rule from federal tax, historical liabilities and relevant administration questions.
We review primary agency forms, instructions and enacted statutes. A dated agency guide can lag a new law: Kentucky's 2026 relationship and payment changes are an example. The relevant state page links the authority used for its current rule. See the source index and limitations.
Indexed inputs for a 2027 death
The federal, Connecticut, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Washington and District worksheets continue the independently verified statutory mechanisms into 2027. Where the death-year exclusion, credit or business limit was not yet published at this review, the form identifies the exact official parameter to enter. A required future input is not populated with a forecast or a prior-year number. Any 2027 amount used to check the arithmetic is an invented sample, never shown as an agency announcement.
The federal continuation is described in IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32; each affected state page links its own indexing law. When a supported date range is within about six weeks of its end, the newly published amount for the next period is read from the agency and added before the old range runs out, so a date of death never falls into a gap.
How document dates are recorded
The first documented date is the earliest version of the page we kept on file, and the publication date in the page's metadata repeats it; it is not a claim about when a search engine first saw the page. The separate updated date is the day the wording or figures last changed or were last re-read against the source. Republishing an unchanged page does not move either date. Replacing a template or correcting a rule updates the current version without relabeling an older page as newly created.
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