US Estate & Gift Tax Calculator
Estimate the federal estate and gift tax exposure on a worldwide or US-situs estate, after the lifetime exemption, portability and lifetime gifts — built for high-net-worth cross-border families.
Your estate details
Taxable gifts reduce your remaining lifetime exemption dollar-for-dollar.
Estimate only — confirm with Jungle Tax before acting. This tool applies the current-year (2026) estimated lifetime exemption of $15,000,000 per person, a $60,000 non-domiciliary US-situs exemption and a flat 40% top rate. It ignores state death taxes, the graduated 18%–40% schedule below the top bracket, the marital and charitable deductions, deductible debts and expenses, treaty relief, GST tax and prior-year gift tax paid. Figures are illustrative and not tax advice.
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Understanding the US federal estate & gift tax
The US federal estate and gift tax is a single, unified tax on the transfer of wealth — whether that transfer happens during your lifetime as a gift or at death as part of your estate. For most Americans it is irrelevant, because the lifetime exemption is very large. But for high-net-worth individuals, business owners and internationally mobile families, it is one of the most consequential taxes they will ever encounter, with a top rate of 40% applied to everything above the exemption. Understanding how the exemption, portability and situs rules interact is the difference between an efficient succession plan and a needless multi-million-dollar liability.
The unified lifetime exemption
Every US citizen and domiciliary has a lifetime exemption that shelters transfers from gift and estate tax. For 2026 that exemption is an estimated $15,000,000 per individual following the 2025 tax legislation, which made the higher exemption permanent and removed the sunset that had been scheduled to cut it roughly in half. Because the tax is unified, the exemption is a single pot: taxable gifts you make during your lifetime draw it down, and whatever remains is available to shelter your estate at death. The calculator above models exactly this, subtracting lifetime taxable gifts already used before applying the remaining exemption to your estate value.
Sitting alongside the lifetime exemption is the annual gift exclusion — an estimated $19,000 per recipient for 2026. Gifts within the annual exclusion do not use any lifetime exemption and do not require a gift tax return, which makes systematic annual gifting one of the simplest and most powerful ways to move wealth out of a taxable estate over time. A married couple can combine their exclusions and give $38,000 per recipient per year.
Domiciliary vs non-domiciliary: who is taxed on what
The single most important cross-border question is whether the individual is a US citizen or domiciliary. If they are, the estate tax reaches their worldwide assets — homes in London or the south of France, foreign investment portfolios, private company shares and everything else, wherever located. If they are a non-domiciliary (a non-resident alien for estate tax purposes), only US-situs assets are within the net — principally US real estate and shares in US corporations. The catch is severe: a non-domiciliary receives an exemption of only about $60,000 against those US-situs assets, derived from a $13,000 unified credit. A foreign national who dies owning a $5,000,000 New York apartment could therefore face US estate tax on roughly $4,940,000 of value, potentially $1.9m or more, despite never having been a US resident.
| Feature | US citizen / domiciliary | Non-domiciliary (NRA) |
|---|---|---|
| Assets in scope | Worldwide | US-situs only |
| Lifetime exemption (2026 est.) | $15,000,000 | ~$60,000 |
| Top tax rate | 40% | 40% |
| Portability of exemption | Yes (with Form 706 election) | Generally no |
| Marital deduction (non-citizen spouse) | QDOT usually required | QDOT usually required |
| Annual gift exclusion (2026 est.) | $19,000 per recipient | $19,000 per recipient (US-situs gifts) |
Portability and the marital deduction
For married US couples, two features soften the tax. The unlimited marital deduction allows any amount to pass to a surviving US-citizen spouse free of estate tax. And portability allows the survivor to inherit the deceased spouse's unused exemption — the DSUE amount — provided the executor files a Form 706 and makes the election, even where no tax is due. Together these let a couple shelter close to $30,000,000 in 2026. The critical trap for cross-border families is that the marital deduction does not automatically apply where the surviving spouse is not a US citizen; a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) is generally required to preserve the deferral. Missing the portability election on the first death is one of the most common and costly errors we see.
Why this matters for internationally mobile HNW families
Cross-border families face a maze of overlapping rules. A UK-domiciled individual holding US shares, a US citizen living in London with a non-citizen spouse, a family office with US real estate held directly rather than through a blocker structure — each faces a different estate tax profile, and small structural choices produce very different outcomes. The US-UK estate and gift tax treaty can reshape the default situs rules and provide relief from double taxation, sometimes extending a far more generous exemption to UK-domiciled individuals with US assets, but treaty positions must be claimed correctly on the return. Layered on top are US state death taxes, the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax on transfers to grandchildren and beyond, and the interaction with UK inheritance tax at its own 40% rate. Coordinating all of this is precisely the work of a dual-qualified US-UK adviser.
How the calculator estimates your tax
The estimator takes your estate value, subtracts the exemption available to you (adjusted for domicile, portability and any lifetime gifts already used), and applies the 40% top rate to the balance. This is a deliberate simplification: the real schedule is graduated from 18% to 40%, but because the exemption absorbs the lower brackets, the top rate is a close proxy for a taxable estate of any meaningful size. It does not attempt to model deductible debts, funeral and administration expenses, the charitable deduction, the marital deduction, state taxes, GST tax or treaty relief — all of which can move the number substantially. Treat the result as a directional indication of exposure and a prompt to obtain tailored advice, not as a filing figure.
Estate planning at this level is rarely about a single calculation. It is about the structure of ownership, the timing of gifts, the use of trusts such as ILITs, GRATs and SLATs, the location of assets and the residency and citizenship of the people involved. The value of the estimate above is that it makes the scale of the question visible — and for many high-net-worth families, seeing a seven-figure potential liability is the moment they decide to put a proper plan in place.
Estate & gift tax questions
The questions high-net-worth and cross-border families most often ask about US estate and gift tax.
For deaths in 2026, a US citizen or domiciliary can pass an estimated $15,000,000 per individual free of federal estate tax under the unified lifetime exemption set by the 2025 tax law. A married couple can shelter up to roughly $30,000,000 combined when portability is elected. Only the value above the available exemption is taxed, at a top federal rate of 40%.
The federal estate and gift tax uses a graduated schedule that runs from 18% to a top rate of 40%. Because the lifetime exemption already shelters the first several million dollars, virtually every taxable estate reaches the 40% top rate, so this calculator applies 40% to the amount above the available exemption as a close estimate.
A non-domiciliary (non-resident alien) is subject to US estate tax only on US-situs assets — chiefly US real estate and shares of US corporations. Critically, the lifetime exemption is only about $60,000 (from a $13,000 unified credit), not the $15,000,000 available to US citizens and domiciliaries. Everything above $60,000 of US-situs property can be taxed at up to 40%, which makes advance planning essential for foreign nationals holding US assets.
Estate tax applies to transfers of wealth at death; gift tax applies to transfers made during life. The two are unified — they share a single lifetime exemption and the same rate schedule. Taxable gifts you make during your lifetime reduce the exemption available at death dollar-for-dollar, which is why this calculator subtracts lifetime taxable gifts already used before applying the exemption to your estate.
The annual gift tax exclusion is an estimated $19,000 per recipient for 2026. You can give up to that amount to any number of people each year without using any of your lifetime exemption or filing a gift tax return. A married couple can combine their exclusions to give $38,000 per recipient per year through gift-splitting.
Portability lets a surviving spouse inherit the deceased spouse's unused exemption (the DSUE amount). To claim it, the executor must file a Form 706 estate tax return within the required window and make the portability election, even if no tax is due. Used correctly, portability allows a married couple to shelter close to $30,000,000 combined in 2026 without complex trust structures.
If you are a US citizen or domiciliary, yes — the federal estate tax reaches your worldwide assets wherever they are located, including foreign real estate, foreign bank and investment accounts, and business interests. Non-domiciliaries are taxed only on US-situs assets. Determining domicile is a facts-and-circumstances test and is one of the most important cross-border questions for high-net-worth families.
Transfers to a US-citizen spouse qualify for the unlimited marital deduction, so no estate tax is due on assets left to that spouse regardless of value. However, the marital deduction does not automatically apply when the surviving spouse is not a US citizen — a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) is generally required to defer the tax. This is a common trap for cross-border couples.
For a non-domiciliary, US-situs assets generally include US real property, tangible personal property located in the US, and shares of US corporations (regardless of where the certificates are held). Notably, US bank deposits and most US-registered debt obligations are generally not US-situs for estate tax, and holding US shares through a foreign corporation can change the analysis. Situs rules are technical and should be reviewed with a specialist.
Form 706 is generally due nine months after the date of death, with a single six-month extension available on request. A return is required when the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts exceeds the filing threshold, or when the executor wishes to elect portability of the unused exemption even though no tax is owed.
Possibly. This calculator estimates federal tax only. A number of US states impose their own estate tax, and several impose an inheritance tax, often with far lower exemptions than the federal level. If you or your assets are connected to a state with its own death tax, the combined liability can be materially higher than the federal figure alone.
Common strategies include using the annual exclusion and lifetime exemption through lifetime gifting, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), charitable trusts, valuation discounts on closely held interests, and, for cross-border families, careful structuring of US-situs holdings and treaty planning. The right mix depends on your assets, family goals and residency profile.
The 2025 legislation set the exemption at an estimated $15,000,000 per individual for 2026 and made it permanent going forward with inflation indexing, removing the previously scheduled 2026 sunset. Tax law can change, so families with estates near or above the threshold should keep their plan under regular review and confirm current figures before acting.
Yes. The US-UK estate and gift tax treaty can override the default situs rules and provides relief from double taxation for individuals connected to both countries, including a more generous exemption for certain UK-domiciled individuals with US assets. Treaty positions are powerful but technical, and claiming them correctly on the estate tax return requires specialist cross-border advice.
Taxable lifetime gifts are not taxed twice, but they are accounted for: the exemption you used during life is no longer available at death, so your remaining exemption is reduced accordingly. Certain gifts made within three years of death and gifts with retained interests can also be pulled back into the taxable estate under specific rules.
Protect your estate from needless tax
Our dual-qualified US and UK specialists design cross-border estate plans that use the exemption, portability, trusts and treaty relief to pass more of your wealth to the next generation. Speak to us before you act.
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