Ohio Estate Tax Calculator
Estimate the federal estate tax on an Ohio decedent’s estate and confirm that Ohio itself charges nothing. Ohio repealed its estate tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2013, and has no inheritance tax and no gift tax, so for 2024-2026 deaths Ohio tax is $0. Distinctive rules modeled: the one-third spousal elective share and the small-estate summary release / affidavit. Three modes: estimate the tax, test a larger estate, or solve for the years of gifting needed to reach zero. Fields marked * are required; Calculate names any left empty.
Federal: unified estate and gift schedule topping at 40%; basic exclusion $13,610,000 (2024), $13,990,000 (2025), $15,000,000 (2026); federal portability (DSUE) allowed; unlimited marital and charitable deductions; GST 40%.
Exclusion and portability
Gross estate to taxable estate
Tax computation
What heirs receive
Ohio succession
Gifting analysis
Three-year gifting projection
How it works
- Ohio charges nothing for recent deaths. The Ohio estate tax (ORC Ch. 5731) was repealed for deaths on or after January 1, 2013 (Am. Sub. H.B. 59; VERIFY exact date), so no Ohio estate tax return is filed. There is no Ohio inheritance tax and no Ohio gift tax.
- Only federal transfer taxes apply. The federal estate tax applies above the basic exclusion using the unified 18% to 40% schedule, and the federal GST applies at 40% to direct skips above the allocated GST exemption.
- No community property. Ohio is a common-law state, so no halving of community assets and no double basis step-up.
- Portability is federal only. A surviving spouse may inherit the unused federal exclusion (DSUE) with a timely Form 706 election; there is no Ohio state exclusion to port.
- Elective share. A surviving spouse may elect one-third of the net estate under ORC 2106.01 (VERIFY) regardless of the will.
- Small estates. Summary release from administration (ORC 2113.03) or affidavit collection (ORC 2113.21) is available where the gross estate or personal property is $100,000 or less; verify the current figures and the spouse-only variant.
- Binding factor names what controls the result: the federal basic exclusion, the federal unified schedule above it, or the GST.
- Gifting mode uses the guarded bisection solver (60 expansions, 90 iterations, rounded up) to find the years of annual-exclusion gifting that bring the taxable estate to the exclusion or below.
- Gifting is not free. Carryover basis loses the step-up; the deferred gain is netted against the tax saved.
Sources
- ORC Ch. 5731 (Ohio estate tax) and its repeal for deaths on or after January 1, 2013 (Am. Sub. H.B. 59; VERIFY exact date); pre-2013 basic exclusion $338,333 with graduated rates (not applicable to 2024-2026 deaths); Ohio Department of Taxation guidance confirming no state estate, inheritance or gift tax for those deaths.
- ORC 2106.01 (spousal elective share of one-third of the net estate; VERIFY); ORC 2113.03 (summary release from administration) and 2113.21 (affidavit collection of personal property), $100,000 thresholds (VERIFY current figures and spouse-only variant); ORC 2113.35 (executor commissions); Ohio probate venue in the Probate Court (Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division) of the county of domicile (88 counties).
- IRC chapter 11 unified schedule and exclusion ($13,610,000 / $13,990,000 / $15,000,000 for 2024 / 2025 / 2026); IRC 2010 portability; IRC 2042 life insurance inclusion; IRC 2055 charitable deduction; IRC chapter 13 GST at 40%; IRC 1014 step-up and 1015 carryover basis.
- IRS Form 706 and Form 4768 instructions (9-month deadline, 6-month filing extension).
Test cases
Gross 9,000,000; admin 172,400; deductions 587,400; net estate 8,412,600; TE 8,412,600 below 13,990,000. Federal $0, Ohio $0, TOTAL $0. Headroom 5,577,400; ceiling 14,577,400. Affidavit NOT available (personal property 5,000,000).
Gross 20,000,000; admin 390,400; deductions 910,400; net estate 19,089,600; TE 19,089,600 above 13,990,000. Federal tentative 7,581,640 less credit 5,541,800 = FEDERAL 2,039,840. Ohio $0. TOTAL 2,039,840. Effective 10.20%.
Gross 26,000,000; admin 512,400; deductions 937,400; net estate 25,062,600; less marital 8,000,000 = TE 17,062,600; federal exclusion 15,990,000. Federal tentative 6,770,840 less credit 6,341,800 = FEDERAL 429,040. Ohio $0. TOTAL 429,040. Elective share one-third = 8,354,200.
Gross 20,000,000; admin 394,400; deductions 709,400; net estate 19,290,600; TE 19,290,600 above 15,000,000. FEDERAL 1,716,240. Solver: 76,000 per year; 57 YEARS removes 4,332,000 leaving TE 14,958,600 at or below the exclusion, tax $0. Saved 1,716,240.
Gross 90,000; admin 1,980; deductions 12,980; net estate 77,020; TE 77,020. Federal $0, Ohio $0, TOTAL $0. Affidavit available (personal property 90,000 at or below 100,000). Elective share one-third = 25,673.
Estimates only. Not legal, tax or financial advice. The Ohio repeal date, elective share and small-estate thresholds are flagged for verification against ORC 5731, 2106.01, 2113.03 and 2113.21. Verify all figures with the Ohio Department of Taxation and federal rules before relying on them.
What Is the Ohio Estate Tax Calculator?
The Ohio Estate Tax Calculator estimates transfer tax by building a taxable estate from entered assets and deductions, adding prior taxable gifts, and comparing the resulting federal base with the applicable federal exclusion. It can also test remaining exclusion headroom or estimate how many years of annual-exclusion gifting would reduce the calculated transfer tax to zero.
The calculator uses federal basic exclusions of $13,610,000 for 2024, $13,990,000 for 2025, and $15,000,000 for 2026. Entered DSUE from a predeceased spouse is added to the basic federal exclusion.
For all supported death years, the code assigns $0 to Ohio estate tax and Ohio inheritance tax. The interface also states that Ohio has no gift tax. Its Ohio repeal date, one-third elective-share treatment, and $100,000 small-estate figure are expressly marked for verification.
How the Ohio Estate Tax Calculation Works
The calculation starts by adding five asset categories: real property, financial accounts, retirement accounts and annuities, life insurance owned by the decedent, and business interests or other property.
G is the gross estate. The remaining variables represent the five entered asset categories. The code does not apply community-property halving.
Administration costs are calculated from gross estate minus debts. Although the field label refers to a percentage of net estate, the implemented formula uses this gross-estate-minus-debt amount and floors it at zero before applying the percentage.
D is debt, p is the entered attorney and executor fee percentage, and K is the entered Probate Court filing and other costs.
The calculator then subtracts debts, funeral expenses, administration costs, and casualty or theft losses. The net estate cannot fall below zero.
The marital deduction applies only when the decedent is marked married and the surviving spouse is either marked as a U.S. citizen or the QDOT option is selected. The marital deduction cannot exceed the net estate. The charitable deduction is limited to what remains after the marital deduction.
For gifting calculations, the calculator caps each effective annual gift per donee at its encoded annual exclusion. It uses $18,000 for 2024 and $19,000 for 2025 and 2026.
Here, g is the entered gift per donee, e is the annual exclusion, n is the number of donees, and y is the number of gifting years.
Earlier taxable gifts are added to the taxable estate to form the federal base. The applicable federal exclusion equals the selected basic exclusion plus entered DSUE.
The calculator applies a progressive federal schedule with rates of 18%, 20%, 22%, 24%, 26%, 28%, 30%, 32%, 34%, 37%, 39%, and 40%. Its bracket caps run through $10,000, $20,000, $40,000, $60,000, $80,000, $100,000, $150,000, $250,000, $500,000, $750,000, and $1,000,000, with 40% applied above the final cap.
S(x) is that progressive federal schedule. Federal GST tax is calculated separately by subtracting the entered GST exemption from direct skips, flooring the result at zero, and applying 40%.
Worked Example
Suppose a 2025 estate has $8,000,000 of real property, $6,000,000 of financial assets, $4,000,000 of retirement assets, and $2,000,000 of business property. Gross estate is $20,000,000. Enter $500,000 of debts, $20,000 of funeral expenses, a 2% administration fee, and $400 of court costs.
Administration costs equal ($20,000,000 – $500,000) × 2% + $400 = $390,400. Total deductions are $910,400, leaving a net and taxable estate of $19,089,600.
For 2025, the calculator uses a $13,990,000 federal exclusion. Its progressive schedule produces tentative federal tax of $7,581,640 on the federal base and an applicable credit of $5,541,800. Federal estate tax is therefore $2,039,840. With no GST tax, total transfer tax is $2,039,840, or 10.20% of the $20,000,000 gross estate.
How to Use the Ohio Estate Tax Calculator
- Select estate-tax mode, larger-estate headroom mode, or the gifting-years solver.
- Choose the year of death and the Ohio county of domicile.
- Enter real property, financial accounts, retirement assets, includible life insurance, and business or other property.
- Enter debts, funeral expenses, the attorney and executor fee percentage, Probate Court costs, and any casualty or theft losses.
- Enter marital status, spouse citizenship or QDOT status, spouse bequests, and charitable bequests when relevant.
- Add earlier taxable gifts, DSUE, direct skips, and allocated GST exemption as needed.
- For gifting analysis, enter the number of donees, gift per donee, unrealized gain, capital-gains-rate selection, NIIT choice, and maximum years to test.
- Check the required acknowledgment and select the calculation button.
Estate mode displays total transfer tax. Headroom mode reports a verdict, remaining federal exclusion headroom, and a tax-free gross-estate ceiling. Gifting mode searches for the smallest whole number of years within the selected maximum that makes total calculated transfer tax zero.
Understanding the Results and Assumptions
| Calculator item | Implemented behavior |
|---|---|
| Federal basic exclusion | $13,610,000 for 2024, $13,990,000 for 2025, and $15,000,000 for 2026. |
| Federal portability | Entered DSUE is added to the basic federal exclusion. |
| Ohio estate and inheritance tax | Both are fixed at $0 for the supported years. |
| Effective transfer-tax rate | Total transfer tax divided by gross estate, displayed to two decimal places. |
| Federal marginal rate display | Shows 40% when the federal base exceeds the applicable exclusion and 0% otherwise. |
| Small-estate test | Uses $100,000 as the personal-property threshold. The interface flags the figure for verification. |
Spousal Elective-Share Estimate
When the married option is selected, the calculator estimates the elective share as one-third of its net estate. It does not reduce this amount by the spouse bequest or calculate a separate augmented estate. The result is presented as an estimate, and the underlying Ohio rule is flagged for verification in the interface.
Small-Estate Status
The implemented small-estate test adds financial accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, and business or other personal property. Real property is not included in this calculation. If that personal-property total is $100,000 or less, the calculator marks the estate as a small estate. The accompanying result text refers to summary release or affidavit procedures and flags the threshold for verification.
Headroom and Tax-Free Ceiling
Remaining federal headroom equals the applicable federal exclusion minus the federal base, with negative values changed to zero. The displayed tax-free ceiling then adds that headroom to the current gross estate.
Gifting Solver
The gifting solver searches for the smallest whole number of years that produces $0 of total transfer tax. It first expands its search range and then runs up to 90 bisection iterations before rounding the result upward to a whole year. The maximum-years field accepts values from 1 through 100.
The estate reduction uses only the annual-exclusion portion of the entered gift. If the entered gift per donee exceeds the encoded annual exclusion, the calculation caps the reduction at that exclusion amount. The excess is not added to prior taxable gifts by this gifting-plan calculation.
The calculator also displays tax after one, two, and three years of gifting and cumulative tax saved after three years. A separate GST liability can prevent the solver from reaching zero because the gifting reduction does not alter the direct-skip or GST-exemption inputs.
Input Limits and Display Formatting
Most dollar inputs accept values from $0 through $100,000,000. The attorney and executor fee accepts 0% through 25%. The number of donees accepts 0 through 200, while maximum gifting years accepts 1 through 100. Currency outputs are rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
The number-of-donees field is marked as required in gifting mode, but zero is within the implemented validation range. An entered zero can therefore pass validation even though the field’s error text asks for one or more donees.
The calculator requires the calculation mode, death year, county, long-term capital-gains-rate selection, and acknowledgment. The calculation button itself is not disabled while these are missing. Instead, pressing it runs validation and displays the missing or invalid fields.
The gifting section includes an unrealized-gain input, a long-term capital-gains rate of 0%, 15%, or 20%, and an optional 3.8% NIIT setting. The explanatory basis note correctly uses the entered unrealized gain and combined selected rate. However, the numeric deferred-capital-gains and net-benefit rows reference an unset result property, so those numeric rows format as $0 under the current code.
This calculator provides estimates based on the assumptions encoded in the tool. Actual tax, filing, probate, deduction, and inheritance outcomes can depend on facts not represented here. The calculator itself flags the Ohio repeal date, elective-share treatment, and small-estate figures for verification and should not be treated as legal, tax, or financial advice.
Estate Tax Calculators for All 50 U.S. States
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this calculator charge Ohio estate tax?
No. The implemented calculation sets Ohio estate tax and Ohio inheritance tax to $0 for 2024, 2025, and 2026. A positive total can still result from federal estate tax or federal generation-skipping transfer tax.
How does DSUE affect the Ohio estate tax calculator?
The entered DSUE amount is added directly to the federal basic exclusion. For example, $2,000,000 of DSUE combined with the calculator’s $13,990,000 basic exclusion for 2025 produces a total applicable federal exclusion of $15,990,000.
How are earlier taxable gifts treated?
Earlier taxable gifts are added to the taxable estate to create the federal base. This affects both the exclusion comparison and the progressive federal tax calculation. The calculator does not impose an Ohio gift tax or an Ohio gift add-back.
How does the one-third elective-share estimate work?
If the married box is selected, the calculator multiplies its net estate by one-third. It displays that amount separately from the marital deduction. The calculator labels the underlying Ohio elective-share rule as a figure that should be verified.
How does the gifting-years calculation work?
The calculator limits each effective gift per donee to the encoded annual exclusion, multiplies it by the number of donees and years, and subtracts that amount from the taxable estate. It repeatedly recalculates transfer tax until it finds the earliest whole year that produces $0 or reaches the selected maximum.
What determines the small-estate result?
The code adds financial accounts, retirement assets, life insurance, and business or other personal property. It marks the small-estate result as “Yes” when that total is $100,000 or less. Real property is not part of this particular code test.
When does the calculator mark federal Form 706 as required?
The calculator marks Form 706 as required when the federal base is greater than the applicable federal exclusion. Its results also display a nine-month filing deadline and a six-month Form 4768 filing extension. These are calculator outputs and should be checked against the rules that apply to the actual estate.