2026 Estate and Gift Tax Changes

In this week’s blog post, I discuss changes to estate and gift taxes for 2026.  As with Social Security and the Medicaid and VA programs which I have already detailed here in past weeks, inflation adjustments have changed some numbers applicable to estate and gift taxes.

Estate tax is due on certain individual’s estates after they die.  While New Jersey does not currently have an estate tax (we do still have an inheritance tax), federal estate tax still exists for estates over a certain size.  For persons dying in 2026, only estates over $15,000,000 are subject to federal estate tax.  This number is up from $13,990,00 last year.  

I should also note that the sunset provision of the current law was set to take effect in 2026 which would have cut the exemption in half.  Congress, however, did eliminate that provision – that is unless Congress decides to change it again.

The annual gift tax exclusion is also indexed for inflation but only is bumped up when the inflation adjustment pushes it over the next $1000 threshold.  That hasn’t happened yet so In 2026 the annual gift tax exclusion will remain at $19,000.  For married couples, because of what is called a “split gift”, they can gift as much as $38,000 ($19,000 x 2).  No gift tax is owed on gifts of $19,000 per person per year (x 2 if married) and these gifts do not use any of the $15,000,000 exemption either.