Estate Tax: Taxes After a Death (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Estate Tax” within taxes after a death. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

Caution: This publication doesn't contain all the rules and exceptions for federal estate, gift, or generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes, nor does it contain all the rules that apply to nonresident noncitizens. If you need more information, see Form 709; Form 709-NA; Form 706; Form 706-NA, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, Estate of nonresident not a citizen of the United States; and the related instructions. This publication also doesn't contain any information about state or local taxes. That information should be available from your state and local taxing authority.

The discussion below is to give you a general understanding of when estate, gift, and GST taxes apply and when they don't. It explains how much money or property can be given away during life or left to heirs at death before any tax will be owed. If the decedent gave someone money or property during the decedent’s life, the personal representative may have to pay the federal gift tax on behalf of the decedent if it wasn't previously paid. The money and property owned by the decedent at death is the estate and may be subject to federal estate tax. This is in addition to any federal income tax that is owed on the gross income of the estate.

Most gifts aren't subject to the gift tax and most estates aren't subject to the estate tax. For example, there is usually no tax if a gift is given to a spouse or charity or if the estate goes to the decedent’s spouse or charity at death. If gifts are made to someone else, the gift tax usually doesn't apply until the value exceeds the annual exclusion for the year. See Annual exclusion under Gift Tax, later. Even if the gift or estate tax applies, it may be eliminated by the applicable credit amount, discussed later.

Estate Tax

Estate tax may apply to the decedent's taxable estate at death. The taxable estate is the gross estate less allowable deductions.

Gross estate.

The gross estate includes the value of all property the decedent owns partially or in full at the time of death. Your gross estate also includes the following.

• Life insurance proceeds payable to the estate or, if the decedent owned the policy, to the decedent’s heirs.

• The value of certain annuities payable to the estate or the decedent’s heirs.

• The value of certain property the decedent transferred within 3 years before death.

Taxable estate.

The allowable deductions used in determining the taxable estate include:

• Funeral expenses paid out of the estate,

• Debts the decedent owed at the time of death,

• The marital deduction (generally, the value of the property that passes from the estate to the surviving spouse),

• The charitable deduction (generally, the value of the property that passes from the decedent's estate to the United States, any state, a political subdivision of a state, the District of Columbia, or a qualifying charity for exclusively charitable purposes), and

• The state death tax deduction (generally, any estate, inheritance, legacy, or succession taxes paid as the result of the decedent’s death to any state or the District of Columbia).

More information.

For more information on what is included in the gross estate and the allowable deductions, see Form 706 and Form 706-NA and their instructions.

Applying the applicable credit to estate tax.

Basically, any applicable credit not used to eliminate gift tax can be used to eliminate or reduce estate tax. However, to determine the applicable credit available for use against the estate tax, you must complete Form 706.

Filing an estate tax return.

An estate tax return must be filed if the gross estate, plus any adjusted taxable gifts and specific gift tax exemption, is more than the basic exclusion amount. The basic exclusion amount is generally equal to the filing requirement. For 2025, the basic exclusion amount is $13,990,000.

Note:

The federal estate tax return doesn’t generally need to be filed unless the total value of lifetime transfers and the estate is worth more than the basic exclusion amount for the year of death. However, a complete and timely filed return is required if a deceased spouse’s estate elects portability of any unused exclusion amount for use by the surviving spouse.

Adjusted taxable gifts is the total of the taxable gifts made by the decedent after 1976 that aren't included in the gross estate.

Note:

The specific gift tax exemption applies only to gifts made after September 8, 1976, and before January 1, 1977.

The applicable exclusion amount is the total amount exempted from gift and/or estate tax. For estates of decedents dying after December 31, 2010, the applicable exclusion amount equals the basic exclusion amount plus any DSUE amount. The DSUE amount is the remaining applicable exclusion amount from the estate of a predeceased spouse who died after December 31, 2010. The DSUE amount is only available where an election was made on the Form 706 filed by the deceased spouse’s estate.

Filing requirement.

The following table lists the filing requirements for estates of decedents dying after 2011.

Basic Exclusion Amount

More information.

If you think the decedent will have an estate on which tax must be paid, or if the estate will have to file an estate tax return even if no tax will be due, see Form 706, Form 706-NA, and the forms’ instructions for more information. You can get publications and forms at IRS.gov/Forms. The estate’s personal representative may want to speak with a qualified tax professional to receive help with estate tax questions.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

• Publication 559 (2025), Survivors, Executors, and Administrators: Estate and Gift Taxes — Estate Tax — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.