US States With the Highest Share of Taxes From Death and Gift

51 US states ranked by share of taxes from death and gift, from highest to lowest. First are Pennsylvania (1.64), Massachusetts (1.53) and Washington (1.41). The middle one of the 51 has 0.000011.

What this measures

The percentage from taxes on what people leave when they die, and on gifts. Estate taxes are charged on what is left, and inheritance taxes on what each heir receives. Only sixteen states and DC collect much, and even for them it is rarely above 2% of tax money. So this is close to a yes-or-no measure of state policy, not a scale. Source: Census government finances.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

Every state

Rank	State	% of all taxes
1	Pennsylvania	1.64
2	Massachusetts	1.53
3	Washington	1.41
4	Oregon	0.923
5	District of Columbia	0.923
6	Rhode Island	0.887
7	Maryland	0.885
8	New York	0.882
9	New Jersey	0.64
10	Minnesota	0.579
11	Connecticut	0.557
12	Illinois	0.471
13	Iowa	0.418
14	Hawaii	0.417
15	Nebraska	0.357
16	Vermont	0.34
17	Maine	0.298
18	Kentucky	0.285
19	Indiana	0.000289
20	Tennessee	0.00022
21	Ohio	0.000211
22	Wisconsin	0.000121
23	California	0.0001
24	Virginia	0.000059
25	North Carolina	0.000015
26	Michigan	0.000011
27	Delaware	0
28	Florida	0
29	Georgia	0
30	Idaho	0
31	Kansas	0
32	Louisiana	0
33	Mississippi	0
34	Missouri	0
35	Montana	0
36	Nevada	0
37	New Hampshire	0
38	New Mexico	0
39	North Dakota	0
40	Oklahoma	0
41	South Carolina	0
42	South Dakota	0
43	Texas	0
44	Utah	0
45	West Virginia	0
46	Wyoming	0
47	Alabama	0
48	Alaska	0
49	Arizona	0
50	Arkansas	0
51	Colorado	0

More on share of taxes from death and gift

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.