2026 Estate & Gift Tax Guide
The $15M exclusion is now permanent. Here are the 2026 numbers, the OBBBA changes, and the planning moves that still matter.
The 2026 sunset was the single biggest estate-planning question of 2025. OBBBA §70106 resolved it: the higher exclusion is now permanent and indexed. This guide reflects the post-OBBBA landscape.
What are the 2026 estate and gift tax amounts?
The 2026 federal estate tax exclusion is $15,000,000 per individual ($30,000,000 per married couple with portability). The annual gift tax exclusion stays at $19,000 per donee.
- •Estate exclusion: $15,000,000 per person (permanent under OBBBA §70106)
- •Annual gift exclusion: $19,000 per donee (unchanged from 2025)
- •Non-citizen spouse gift exclusion: $194,000
- •Top federal estate & gift rate: 40%
The federal estate and gift tax exemption is the largest in U.S. history — but it's a moving target, and the sunset risk shapes every multi-year planning decision. Couples in the $5M-$25M range are the ones who need to act before any provision changes; ultra-high-net-worth and middle-class families are mostly insulated.
Real-world scenario
Couple with $18M estate uses annual gift exclusion + 529 superfunding
2026 annual exclusion (Rev. Proc. 2025-32): ~$19,000 per donor per recipient. With 3 kids and 6 grandkids, the couple can gift $19K × 2 donors × 9 recipients = $342K/year — completely outside the estate, no 709 needed as long as each spouse gives from their own or joint funds (a gift from one spouse's money needs a 709 gift-splitting election). Superfunding is an alternative for a grandchild, not an extra: each spouse can put $95K into that grandchild's 529 at once and elect on Form 709 to spread it over 5 years, but that uses up the $19K annual exclusion for that grandchild for all 5 years, so there are no further tax-free cash gifts to them in those years. The payoff is that the money grows outside the estate sooner. Over a decade, annual-exclusion gifts alone move about $3.4M ($342K × 10), plus the growth on whatever was moved early.
The part most people miss
The 'reciprocal trust doctrine' kills the cute strategy of two spouses creating mirror-image SLATs (spousal lifetime access trusts) for each other. The IRS uncrosses them and pulls assets back into both estates. If you're using SLATs, the trusts must have meaningfully different terms — different distribution standards, different trustees, different beneficiary classes — not just swapped names.
2026 Numbers at a Glance
Why OBBBA §70106 matters
Under pre-OBBBA law, the TCJA's doubled exclusion was scheduled to expire after 2025, reverting to roughly $7M per person on January 1, 2026. Many high-net-worth families rushed gifting strategies through 2024–2025 to lock in the higher exclusion. OBBBA §70106, signed July 4, 2025, eliminated that cliff: the base exclusion is now $$15,000,000 for 2026 and is permanently indexed for inflation thereafter.
That doesn't mean planning stops — state estate taxes (12 states + DC), portability elections, basis step-up timing, and generation-skipping transfers all still require active management.
2026 Planning Checklist
- Use the $19,000 annual exclusion before Dec 31 — it doesn't carry forward
- File Form 706 to elect portability even if no estate tax is due — normally within 9 months of death (6-month extension available); the 5-year simplified late election (Rev. Proc. 2022-32) applies only to estates not otherwise required to file
- Review state estate tax (MA, OR, WA, NY, etc. have much lower exclusions)
- Coordinate GST exemption allocation on dynasty trust contributions
- Reassess SLATs and other irrevocable trusts in light of permanent exclusion
Frequently Asked Questions
Source documents
State estate and inheritance taxes
The federal exclusion does not replace a state's threshold, and inheritance tax is a separate beneficiary-level claim.
Compare all 50 states and D.C. →Sources & References
Primary references used for this content
United States Estate Tax Return
Estate tax computation and portability election
View on irs.gov
United States Gift Tax Return
Annual exclusion and lifetime exemption reporting
View on irs.gov
Unified credit against estate tax
Basic exclusion amount and portability
View on law.cornell.edu
✓3 primary sources; links re-checked on a weekly rotation by the source watcher