A law that worried a lot of families just got rewritten in their favor. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, made the federal estate and gift tax exemption permanent at $15 million per person (about $30 million for a married couple) starting in 2026, indexed for inflation going forward. The old rule was set to cut that exemption roughly in half at the end of 2025, so this removes a cliff that had people rushing to plan around it.
Here is the short version: for the large majority of Florida families, the federal estate tax is now a non-issue. But “no estate tax” is not the same as “no plan,” and the change quietly shifts where the real planning value sits.
What actually changed
Before the new law, the exemption was scheduled to drop to roughly half its level after 2025, which would have pulled many more estates into the federal estate tax. The new law cancels that drop and locks the exemption in at $15 million per person, indexed each year. In plain terms, an individual can pass up to $15 million, and a married couple up to about $30 million, before the federal estate tax applies at all.
For most people, that means the 40% federal estate tax most families feared simply will not touch them.
What it means for Florida specifically
Florida already has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax, so Florida residents were never paying a state-level death tax to begin with. Stack the new federal exemption on top of that, and the death-tax worry that drives a lot of late-night research is, for most Florida families, off the table.
That is genuinely good news. It also tends to produce a dangerous conclusion: “so I do not need an estate plan.” That does not follow.
Why most families still need a plan
The federal estate tax was never the main reason a typical family needs an estate plan. The new exemption changes the tax math, not any of these:
- Probate. A will still goes through Florida probate. The plan that keeps your home and accounts out of a public, months-long court process (a lady bird deed, a living trust, beneficiary designations) is unchanged by this law.
- Incapacity. If you lose capacity, someone needs legal authority to act for you. A durable power of attorney and health care documents have nothing to do with the estate tax.
- Long-term care and Medicaid. A nursing home runs roughly $10,000 a month in Florida. Protecting a home and savings from that cost is its own planning problem, untouched by the exemption.
- Making sure it goes where you want. Blended families, minor children, a spouse who is not a US citizen, out-of-state property: none of these are solved by a high exemption.
The lever that matters more now: step-up in basis
With the estate tax off the table for most families, the bigger tax question becomes income tax, specifically the step-up in basis. When assets pass at death, their cost basis resets to the date-of-death value, which can erase a lifetime of capital gains for your heirs. Keeping appreciated assets in your estate (rather than giving them away during life) is how you capture that step-up, and for married couples a Florida community property trust can let both halves of an asset step up at the first death. The high exemption makes this trade-off easier, not harder.
Two things married couples should not skip
Even with a $15 million exemption, two items still require action:
- Portability. A surviving spouse can keep the first spouse’s unused exemption, but only by making the election on a timely estate tax return. It is not automatic, and missing it can forfeit millions of dollars of shelter.
- Domicile. If you moved to Florida from a state that does tax estates, where you are legally domiciled still matters. Florida residency is a planning step, not just an address change.
The bottom line
The $15 million exemption is real, permanent, and good for Florida families. It takes the federal estate tax out of the picture for most of us. What it does not do is replace a plan that handles probate, incapacity, long-term care, and getting your assets where you intend. If you set up a plan years ago around a lower exemption, this is a good moment to have it reviewed so it still fits the new rules.
We sort this out in a free 30-minute consult. You do not need to have it figured out first.
Related Guides
- Does Florida have an estate tax?
- Estate tax portability for married couples
- Florida community property trust (double step-up)
- Florida estate planning attorney
Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate planning and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship.