Estate tax return: When do I need to file Form 706?

When do I need to file Form 706, estate tax return? Robert 'Bob' Powell answers this question as part of Decoding Retirement's special segment, Ask Bob.

Mitlin Financial founder and wealth advisor Lawrence Sprung joined Robert 'Bob' Powell on Decoding Retirement to discuss the latest inflation numbers, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the current housing market, "finfluencers" and AI's impact on personal finance, and much more.

Question:

When do I need to file Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return?

Answer:

You need to file an Estate Tax Return (Form 706) if the total value of everything the deceased person owned, plus their taxable gifts and any gift tax exemptions they used, is higher than the filing limit for the year they passed away.

The filing limit for 2024 is $13,610,000. And 4,000 people had to file that form in 2023. So, only the estimated number of total and taxable estate tax returns are 7,600 and 3,900 for 2022, and 7,100 and 4,000 for 2023. And given that there were 3 million deaths in the US in 2023, your odds of having to file such a return are quite small, 750 to 1.

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Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell, and produced by Zach Faulds and Alexander Frangeskides.

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Editor's note: This post was written by Zach Faulds.