Seventeen jurisdictions impose an estate tax, an inheritance tax or both in 2026, with thresholds from $1 million in Oregon to $15 million in Connecticut. A chart tells an advisor where exposure exists. It does not say what determines whether a client is exposed, and a reader thinking about South Dakota trusts can draw the wrong inference: that moving a trust there removes state estate tax. It does not.
State estate tax follows domicile at death and separately reaches real and tangible property in the taxing state. What changes the result is a completed gift to an irrevocable trust, because every one of the seventeen jurisdictions computes its tax from the federal gross estate, so the same transfer removes the assets from both. Timing matters, since New York and Minnesota pull back gifts made within three years of death, and the notes on Washington, Illinois, Oregon and Massachusetts are the ones advisors most often get wrong.
The full piece is at turnipseed.law.
