Minnesota Estate Tax Calculator (2026 Exemption Limits & Inheritance Liabilities)

Minnesota's estate tax exemption is $3,000,000, and once an estate crosses that line, the state applies rates starting at 13% (among the highest starting marginal rates of any of the twelve states with a separate estate tax) climbing to a 16% ceiling.

That narrow band, from 13% to 16%, means Minnesota's schedule is less a long progressive climb and more a consistently high rate applied almost as soon as the exemption is exceeded, unlike states such as Illinois or Maryland that start their brackets below 1%.

No separate inheritance tax applies on top of that, either: the estate-level number is the full extent of Minnesota's state death tax, regardless of a beneficiary's relationship to the decedent.

As in the other eleven states with their own estate tax, Minnesota's $3,000,000 threshold is set independently of the federal exemption, which means an estate too small to require any federal paperwork can still generate a full Minnesota filing and tax obligation.

The calculator starts from two numbers you enter: the gross estate at fair market value, and the marital, charitable, and administrative deductions the estate can claim. It subtracts the second from the first to get the net estate, then applies Minnesota's own schedule to that figure. Nothing else feeds the result.

Below the exemption the tax is zero. Above it, Minnesota does not apply one rate to the whole excess. Each dollar is taxed at the rate for the bracket that dollar falls into, so the schedule below is read slice by slice.

1. Value the gross estate. Fair market value at the date of death of all real property, business interests, securities, cash, and life insurance proceeds the decedent owned.
2. Subtract allowable deductions. Debts, administrative expenses, qualifying charitable bequests, and the unlimited marital deduction come off the gross figure. What remains is the net estate.
3. Test it against the $3,000,000 exemption. If the net estate is at or below that line, the answer is $0 and the calculation stops.
4. Walk the brackets. Each slice of the net estate above $3,000,000 is multiplied by its own rate and the products are added together. Quoting the top rate against the whole excess overstates the bill on any estate that does not reach the final bracket.
5. Subtract the tax. What is left of the net estate is what beneficiaries actually receive.

The rates come from the Minnesota Form M706 rate table, which publishes them against the excess over the exclusion; the boundaries below restate them in whole-estate terms. The first bracket is $7,100,000 wide, so most Minnesota estates that owe anything are taxed at a flat 13% in practice and never reach the graduated portion at all.

That is the entire computation. The calculator does not carry over a deceased spouse's unused exemption, add back lifetime taxable gifts, apply the generation-skipping transfer tax, discount closely held interests, or figure the separate federal return. Those sit under "What This Does Not Account For" below, not in the math above.

1. Start with the gross estate. This example uses a $5,000,000 gross estate: the fair market value of all property, business interests, equities, cash, and life insurance the decedent owned at death, before deductions.
2. Apply Minnesota's exemption. Minnesota taxes estates only above $3,000,000, so that amount passes tax-free and only the remainder is exposed to state tax.
3. Taxable estate above exemption. $5,000,000 minus $3,000,000 leaves $2,000,000 subject to Minnesota estate tax.
4. Apply the graduated rate table, not a flat top rate. Per the Department of Revenue's 2025 Rate Table, the first $7,100,000 of the amount above the exemption is taxed at 13.0%, with 13.6%, 14.4%, 15.2%, and 16.0% brackets only reached on much larger excess amounts. The full $2,000,000 here sits inside that 13% bracket: $2,000,000 × 13.0% = $260,000.
5. Net estate distributed to heirs. $260,000 in tax leaves $4,740,000 ($5,000,000 minus $260,000) to beneficiaries.
6. What this leaves out. This is Minnesota's state-level computation only; federal estate tax is assessed separately under IRC § 2010.

Minnesota has an exemption edge and, far above it, a rate-band edge. Most estates only ever meet the first, but the sweep contains both and they behave differently.

The first threshold walk. At $2,990,000 the engine returns $0.00; at exactly $3,000,000 it still returns $0.00, passing the whole estate to heirs. At $3,001,000 it returns $130.00, and at $3,010,000, $1,300.00. The first thousand dollars over the line costs $130.00, a marginal 13.0%, and there is no ramp beneath it. Minnesota's entry rate is the highest of the three taxing states in this batch: Maryland enters at 16% but from a $5,000,000 line, and Massachusetts enters at 7.2% from a $2,000,000 one.

The second threshold walk. The 13.0% band runs a long way. At a $10,100,000 estate the engine returns $923,000.00; at $10,200,000 it returns $936,600.00. That hundred thousand cost $13,600.00 rather than $13,000.00, which is the step from the 13.0% band into the 13.6% band at $7,100,000 of excess over the exemption. Three further steps follow at 14.4%, 15.2% and 16.0%, none of which a $15,000,000 estate fully reaches: the engine returns $1,659,000.00 there, an effective 11.06%.

The marginal cost of the next unit. Below $10,100,000 of estate value each additional $1,000 costs $130.00. The engine returns $260,000.00 on a $5,000,000 estate, exactly 13% of the $2,000,000 excess, at an effective rate of 5.20%.

The reverse question. The largest estate owing Minnesota nothing is exactly $3,000,000. Deductions raise that ceiling dollar for dollar, since the calculator nets them off the gross before the exemption test: a $5,000,000 gross estate with $1,000,000 of deductions computes to $130,000.00 against the $260,000.00 it owes with none, so the deduction is worth exactly $130,000.00 at the 13% marginal rate.

Right method against wrong method, priced. Reaching for the 16.0% headline rate is the error. Applied to the $2,000,000 excess on a $5,000,000 estate it gives $320,000 against the engine's $260,000.00, overstating by $60,000.00. The 16.0% rate only applies to excess above $10,100,000, which in full-estate terms means above $13,100,000.

What the calculator does not carry. Minnesota's qualified small business and farm property deduction, which can shelter a substantial amount of a working farm or closely held business, has no representation in this code path; the engine tests gross value less whatever deductions are entered and nothing else. Minnesota also has no separate inheritance tax, so unlike Maryland the estate-level figure here is the full extent of the state's claim.

• Portability of a deceased spouse's unused exemption. Most states with an estate tax, including this one, do not allow it at the state level, and the calculator does not apply it in either direction.
• Lifetime taxable gifts added back into the taxable estate, and any QTIP election, credit shelter trust, or state QTIP decoupling that would change what the taxable estate actually is.
• Valuation discounts for minority or non-marketable interests in closely held entities. Enter the discounted value yourself if the appraisal supports one.
• Federal generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax under IRC Chapter 13.
• Ancillary probate requirements for real property situated in other jurisdictions.
• Complex liquidity discounts for minority non-voting family business entities.
• State-specific inheritance taxes levied directly on beneficiaries (e.g. PA, NJ, MD, KY, NE).

• Assuming State Exemption Matches Federal: Forgetting that states like Oregon ($1.0M) and Massachusetts ($2.0M) tax estates far below the federal threshold.
• The "Cliff" Effect in Specific States: Failing to recognize that states like New York eliminate the exemption entirely if the estate exceeds 105% of the threshold.
• Out-of-State Real Property Exposure: Holding real estate in states with active estate taxes exposes non-resident estates to proportional state estate taxes.
• Failing to Fund Revocable Living Trusts: Assets held outside trust structures are subjected to public probate proceedings and statutory executor fees.

• Minnesota Department of Revenue: Estate Tax Guidance (2026). revenue.state.mn.us