Washington Estate Tax 2026: 20% Top Rate From July 1, 2026

The three dates

A Washington death is taxed under the schedule and exclusion in force on the date of death, not on the date the return is filed. RCW 83.100.020(1)(a) says the exclusion is the one “in effect as of the date of the decedent’s death.” Three dates since mid-2025 changed what a given estate owes.

The July 1, 2025 date is when 2025 c 421 raised the exclusion from $2,193,000 to $3,000,000 and added higher rates from the second bracket up. The January 1, 2026 date is the step to $3,076,000, the first year of the CPI adjustment in the 2025 law (the session law of 2026 strikes “2026” and writes “2027” as the first year of that clause, and lists $3,076,000 for the first half of 2026 as a fixed figure). The July 1, 2026 date is when Chapter 209, Laws of 2026 (an act described as “Relating to undoing certain changes to the estate tax”) applies: it restores the pre-2025 rate table and sets the exclusion at $3,000,000. The bill passed the Senate on March 12, 2026 and the House on March 11, 2026, was approved by the governor on March 24, 2026 and took effect June 11, 2026, but it governs by death date, so a death on June 30, 2026 stayed on the 35% schedule.

The statute also has a fourth date. Paragraph (1)(a)(xi) says that for deaths in calendar year 2027 and after the $3,000,000 is adjusted by the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton consumer price index against October 2024, never downward. The Department of Revenue’s estate tax page says the figure “is not set to increase going forward due to an expired CPI in the statute,” and its table lists $3,000,000 for 2027 and after. We could not reconcile the two from the documents, so treat the 2027 number as open until the Department posts it (see the dates section below).

The full rate table

The tax is figured on the Washington taxable estate: the gross estate less allowable deductions (debts, expenses, the marital and charitable deductions, the farm deduction where it applies) and less the exclusion. The Department’s Table W gives the same figures as the statute.

The bracket edges are in the taxable estate, so the first $3,000,000 of a Washington resident’s estate is out of the tax through the exclusion and the first dollar taxed is at 10%. A reader who sees “20%” in a headline is looking at the top bracket only: on a $10,000,000 estate the average rate under the July 2026 schedule is 11% (our arithmetic: $1,100,000 over $10,000,000).

One estate, four death dates

All cases are a Washington resident with the whole estate in Washington, no deductions and no marital or charitable gift, so the Washington taxable estate is the gross estate less the exclusion. They are arithmetic from the tables above, not a forecast. As a check, the same function reproduces the Department’s own 2024 example (a $4,000,000 gross estate, $100,000 of deductions and a $2,193,000 exclusion gives $198,980).

Three things stand out.

• The big gap is above about $7,500,000. At $10,000,000 the July 2026 schedule is $210,240 lower than the January to June 2026 one ($1,310,240 minus $1,100,000); at $20,000,000 it is $1,613,400 lower. The old 35% bracket reached everything over $9,000,000 of taxable estate, and the new 20% does.
• Below about $5,146,000 the earlier 2026 date cost less or the same. The January to June 2026 exclusion was $76,000 higher, and its 15% and 17% brackets are not far above the new 14% and 15%. At $5,000,000 the tax is $238,600 for a death on June 30, 2026 and $240,000 for one on July 1, 2026. At $5,146,000 both give $261,900. This is arithmetic about a tax table, not a view on anyone’s planning.
• Estates just over the line pay little. A $3,050,000 estate owes nothing for a death between January 1 and June 30, 2026 (below the $3,076,000 threshold) and $5,000 from July 1, 2026 ($50,000 of taxable estate at 10%). The return is still required in the second case.

Who has to file, and when

RCW 83.100.050(1) requires a Washington return when the gross estate “equals or exceeds the applicable exclusion amount.” The Department says the test uses the gross value of everything the decedent owned, wherever located, before deductions, and that a decedent domiciled in Washington, or a nonresident who owns real estate or tangible personal property in Washington, must file “even if no tax is due.”

• Due date: one of the return, or an extension request with an estimated payment, is due 9 months after the date of death. The Department offers a six-month extension to file, but “Approval of an extension of time to file the Washington estate tax return does not grant additional time to pay the estate tax.”
• Interest: unpaid tax accrues daily interest from the 9-month date. The assessment rate is 6% for 2026 on the Department’s table (7% for 2025).
• Penalty: RCW 83.100.070(3)(b) sets 5% of the tax per month for a late return, capped at the lesser of 25% of the tax or $1,500, and no penalty if the return is filed voluntarily before the Department writes to the filer.
• Spouse and home: for deaths on or after January 1, 2025, the surviving-spouse personal residence can be left out of the gross estate when testing whether a return is required, if the home passes to the spouse, both occupied it for more than six months of the prior 12 and no election is needed. It decides only the filing test; the home stays in the estate if the rest of the assets reach the threshold.
• Personal liability: under RCW 83.100.120 a personal representative who distributes property before paying or securing the tax is personally liable to the extent of the property received.

Real estate and illiquid funds in a Washington estate

For the reader whose estate is a house, rentals and fund shares, the tax is computed on values, and the values are a judgment the return has to support.

Valuation. The Department’s FAQ says the best evidence for real estate is “an actual arms-length sale within a reasonable time after the date of death,” and otherwise a certified appraisal. Fractional interests in real estate and shares of a business with no market are reported under the federal valuation rules (26 CFR 20.2031-2 and 20.2031-3, cited in the IRS Instructions for Form 706), with financial data attached. A non-traded REIT or interval fund share has no quoted price on the date of death; what the executor reports and how it is supported is the point to settle early. Our federal estate tax exemption guide walks through those regulations for LLC interests, REIT shares and DSTs.

Alternate valuation. The executor may elect to value assets six months after death, but only if the election lowers both the gross estate and the total net estate taxes, it must be the same on the federal and Washington returns, it cannot be applied to part of the property, and it cannot be revoked. Assets sold or distributed inside the six months are valued on that date. This matters when a fund or property falls in value after death; it does nothing when values rise.

Installments. Washington follows section 6166 as it stood on January 1, 2005. The interest in a closely held business must exceed 35% of the adjusted gross estate, and the Department adds that “Passive income activities, generally, do not qualify as a trade or business.” That excludes most holdings of rental buildings or fund units, so a reader should not assume the tax on a real estate estate can be spread. In the Department’s example a $1,070,000 tax on an $11,000,000 estate has $599,200 (56%) deferrable because the business is 56% of the adjusted gross estate; the rest is due at 9 months. Federal special-use valuation (section 2032A, ceiling $1,460,000 for 2026 deaths) and the Washington farm and family-owned business deductions are separate and apply only to farms and active businesses.

Property in other states. RCW 83.100.040(2)(b) multiplies the tax by a fraction: Washington property over the gross estate. The tax is first computed as if everything were in Washington, so the exclusion is applied to the worldwide estate. A rental house deeded in Arizona is outside the numerator; the Department’s own example for a Washington resident multiplies a $212,980 tax by $3,050,000 over $4,100,000 to reach $158,436. A business entity is different: the Department’s tax topic says “A business entity is considered an intangible asset for estate tax purposes even when it owns real estate.” For a resident, intangible property is located in Washington (RCW 83.100.040(1)), so an LLC that owns the Arizona house is Washington property.

The second row is our reading of two Department statements, not a ruling on any estate; titling and the state of the other property can change the answer, and the owning state may tax the same property. For a nonresident, the Department’s example counts only Washington real and tangible property in the numerator, with intangibles treated as located outside Washington.

The cash problem. The tax is due at 9 months, with interest from then, while the assets may be a house, buildings and fund units that cannot be sold or redeemed in that time. A $10,000,000 estate that is $2,500,000 of home, $3,000,000 of rentals, $2,000,000 of non-traded fund shares, $1,500,000 of IRA and $1,000,000 of cash owes $1,100,000 (our arithmetic), which is more than the cash. Redemption rules for funds are on each fund’s page, for example the repurchase schedule of an interval fund; a death-and-disability repurchase right, where a fund has one, is worth checking before it is needed. How property gets a new tax basis at death is in our step-up in basis guide, and the probate side is in the probate guide.

Spouses: no portability

The Department’s FAQ: “Washington law does not have, nor does it incorporate, the federal provisions of portability for estate tax.” Each estate gets the exclusion for its own date of death. The unlimited marital deduction defers the tax, but the first spouse’s $3,000,000 is used only if the estate plan puts something other than an outright gift to the spouse in a trust at the first death.

The difference is $550,000 under assumptions that rarely hold: no growth, no deductions, nothing out of state, both deaths under the July 2026 schedule. RCW 83.100.047 lets the Department provide for a separate marital-trust (QTIP) election on the Washington return, and the Department says a Washington QTIP election can be zero. Setting this up is the job of an estate-planning attorney. Our guide to the ILIT and SLAT covers one tool that couples use, and the family limited partnership guide covers another.

The federal return, briefly

For 2026 deaths the federal basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000 (IRS Instructions for Form 706; Rev. Proc. 2025-32, applying the 2025 law), so a Washington estate under that figure owes no federal tax and its only estate tax is the state one. A federal Form 706 is due 9 months after death (an automatic six-month extension is available on Form 4768), and the executor of a smaller estate may file one only to elect portability of the federal exclusion, within five years of death under Rev. Proc. 2022-32. That election does nothing for the Washington tax. Estates that do owe federal tax deduct state death taxes under section 2058, a point the Form 706 instructions cover. The federal numbers, the DSUE election and the state comparison table are in our estate tax exemption guide.

Dates to watch

• December 31, 2026: the $3,000,000 exclusion applies to deaths from July 1 to December 31, 2026 on the Department’s table.
• January 1, 2027: the first date the statute’s CPI clause could apply. Check the Department’s estate tax tables page in January 2027 for the figure it posts.
• The 9-month date: it runs from each death, not from a calendar; a death on October 20, 2026 puts the return and payment due July 20, 2027.

What a reader can do with this

What the documents let you check before talking to anyone:

• Add up the Washington gross estate the way the Department does: everything owned or held in a revocable trust, wherever located, including the decedent’s half of community property, life insurance you own and IRAs. Compare it with $3,000,000.
• Run the table: subtract $3,000,000 and any deductions, then read the July 2026 column. The result is the planning number, not the final tax.
• List what sits outside Washington and how it is titled: a deed in another state is carved out through the fraction; an LLC or fund interest is treated as an intangible.
• List what could not be sold in 9 months and compare it with the tax at the top of the range.
• Check the couple’s documents for what happens at the first death, since Washington has no portability.

The decision, and who makes it. An estate plan is drafted by an estate-planning attorney; the returns are prepared by the attorney or a CPA; appraisals of buildings and fund interests come from credentialed appraisers. A financial adviser’s part is the other half: which assets would be sold or redeemed to pay a tax that may be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and what that does to income. Nothing here is a recommendation to change a plan.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 20, 2026: Revised Code of Washington 83.100.020, 83.100.040, 83.100.046, 83.100.047, 83.100.048, 83.100.050, 83.100.060, 83.100.070 and 83.100.120 (app.leg.wa.gov); Engrossed Senate Bill 6347, Chapter 209, Laws of 2026 (lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov); Washington Department of Revenue pages on the estate tax, estate tax FAQ, estate tax tables (Table W, filing thresholds, interest rates), apportionment for out of state property, alternate valuation, installment plans, the spousal personal residence exclusion and the tax topic on real property owned by business entities (dor.wa.gov); IRS Instructions for Form 706 (Rev. July 2026) and Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (irs.gov). Examples and comparisons are our arithmetic, with the assumptions stated. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.