What is the current estate tax exemption amount in the US as of 2025?
Executive summary
The federal estate and gift tax exemption for deaths and gifts in 2025 is $13.99 million per individual ($27.98 million for married couples using portability), meaning estates below those amounts are generally not subject to the federal estate tax in 2025 [1][2]. Lawmakers later made changes that raise the exclusion to $15 million per person beginning January 1, 2026, but that new level does not apply to 2025 deaths and gifts [3][4].
1. What the 2025 number is, plainly stated
For calendar-year 2025 the IRS-set unified estate and gift tax exemption is $13.99 million for each individual, and married couples can shelter $27.98 million when they take advantage of portability of a deceased spouse’s unused exclusion [1][2].
2. How that figure came to be and why it matters
The $13.99 million figure for 2025 reflects the inflation-adjusted level that followed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and was announced by the IRS for 2025; because the estate and gift tax rules unify lifetime gift and death-time estate exclusions, use of taxable gifts during life reduces the remaining exclusion at death [1][5].
3. The immediate timeline: 2026 changes already legislated
Although 2025’s exclusion is $13.99 million, Congress enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) in mid-2025 to make a higher lifetime exclusion permanent and to set the exclusion at $15 million per person (indexed for inflation) effective January 1, 2026, meaning estates in 2026 will generally be subject to the new $15 million-per-person threshold [3][4][6].
4. Practical implications for estate planning in 2025
Because the 2025 exemption is high but set to rise to $15 million in 2026, estate advisors and wealth managers framed 2025 as both an opportunity and a timing decision: transfers in 2025 consume the $13.99 million lifetime exclusion if they are taxable gifts, but individuals who made large gifts in 2018–2025 have regulatory protections so those earlier gifts are not penalized if the exclusion later moves [7][8]; advisors therefore recommend assessing whether to gift now to lock in current valuations or wait for the permanent $15 million level depending on personal circumstances [7][9].
5. Who benefits, who objects — the political and policy angle
The elevated exemption since 2018 (and efforts to make a high exclusion permanent) benefits high‑net‑worth families by reducing the fraction of estates that face federal estate tax and has been championed by conservative lawmakers and industry advisers; opponents argue that larger exemptions shrink the estate‑tax base and reduce progressivity, while proponents cite protections for family businesses and farms—these political stakes informed OBBBA’s passage and the subsequent legal and planning commentary [5][6][10].
6. Limits of the record and what remains to confirm
The reporting used here consistently identifies $13.99 million as the 2025 exclusion and documents a legislated change to $15 million effective in 2026 [1][3]; this summary does not attempt to interpret state-level estate or inheritance taxes (many of which have much lower thresholds) because those specifics are outside the provided sources and therefore not asserted here (no source).