Does Florida Have an Estate Tax?

The Short Answer

Florida charges no estate tax, no inheritance tax, and no income tax. When you die a Florida resident, the only death tax that can reach you is the federal estate tax, and that applies only to very large estates (about $15 million per person in 2026). For almost everyone, that means no death tax at all. The catch, and the reason this page exists, is that the state you are leaving may tax estates at a far lower threshold than the federal one.

The States That Still Tax Your Estate

Florida is in the comfortable majority. But if you live in, or own property in, one of these states, your family can owe a tax Florida residents never face.

Swipe the table sideways to see each state’s catch.

Thresholds and rules change; we confirm the current figures for your state at the consult.

Plan to the State Number, Not the Federal One

Here is the mistake that costs families the most. The federal exemption is so high (about $15 million per person) that advisors routinely tell clients they have nothing to worry about. Federally, true. But a family worth $3 million is completely clear of federal tax and squarely in their home state’s crosshairs. Massachusetts would tax that estate; so would Oregon, and others. If you plan only to the federal number, you can walk straight into a state estate-tax bill nobody warned you about. Congress made that high federal figure permanent in 2025, which is genuinely good news that also moves the planning value somewhere else, and we sorted through what the change does and does not do for Florida families in what the $15 million exemption means here.

How Florida Saves It: Change Your Domicile

If you make Florida your legal domicile before you die, your estate is generally governed by Florida law, which has no estate tax, rather than your old state’s. For a high-tax-state family, that shift can save hundreds of thousands of dollars. The move has to be real, though, because states like New York run aggressive domicile audits, and buying a Florida condo is not enough. You establish Florida as your true home and document it with a recorded Declaration of Domicile, a Florida license and voter registration, the homestead exemption, an estate plan redone under Florida law, and a day-count that clearly favors Florida. We prepare the documents and give you the checklist.

How Many Months Do I Have to Live in Florida to Be a Resident?

The question I get most about this is, “How many months do I have to live in Florida?” Florida sets no month requirement for domicile, so the honest answer is that the number you are looking for does not come from Florida at all. Florida asks where your permanent home is and treats that as a question of fact. The day count that decides your tax bill belongs to the state you left, and many high-tax states apply a 183-day test of their own, which is why the calendar matters even though Florida never mentions one.

The consequences of that run two ways. Spending five months a year in Florida can be plenty for Florida and nowhere near enough for a state that counts 183 days against you. And because the old state runs the audit, the record that proves the count has to satisfy that state’s rules rather than ours, which means the flight receipts, the credit card statements and the phone’s own location history are worth keeping year by year rather than reconstructing later.

Two Traps, and the Tools

The out-of-state property trap. Real estate you keep in another estate-tax state can still be taxed by that state, because real property is taxed where it sits. A Florida retiree with a vacation home in Maine or Massachusetts can still owe that state’s estate tax on it, often fixed by holding the property in an entity or trust. Run your own numbers on the state estate tax calculator. If you cannot move, certain irrevocable trusts and lifetime gifting can still trim a taxable estate in your home state, and common tools include a qualified personal residence trust for the home, an irrevocable life insurance trust for policy proceeds, and a charitable remainder trust for charitably inclined families. And for married couples generally, estate tax portability preserves a deceased spouse’s federal exemption (claimed by filing Form 706), while a community property trust and other irrevocable trusts address the tax on appreciated assets, and a QTIP trust can provide for a surviving spouse while controlling where the assets go afterward. We match the tools to your state and your goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The Boston couple worth $3 million. Their advisor said they were "under the exemption," meaning the federal one. They were not under the Massachusetts $2 million threshold, and their estate faced a six-figure state tax. Establishing Florida domicile, with the paperwork to back it up, removed the Massachusetts bill entirely.

The New York snowbird audited. A retiree spent winters in Naples but kept a New York apartment and most of his life up north. New York treated him as still domiciled there. We built a clean domicile record (days, license, declaration, plan redone under Florida law) so the next time the question came up, the answer was clearly Florida.

The Maine vacation home. A Florida couple thought they were fully clear, but their Maine cottage exposed them to Maine estate tax on that property. Restructuring how the cottage was owned solved it.

Sources of Law

• Florida imposes no state estate, inheritance, or income tax (Fla. Const. Art. VII). The federal estate and gift tax exemption is $15,000,000 per person in 2026 (IRC §2010, One Big Beautiful Bill Act). (retrieved 2026-06-07)
• State estate and inheritance taxes are set by each state’s own law and change frequently; thresholds (e.g., Massachusetts $2M, Oregon $1M, New York’s cliff) are confirmed at the consult.
• Florida domicile: Fla. Stat. §222.17 (Declaration of Domicile). Real property is generally subject to estate tax in the state where it is located.

The Small Things That Decide a Florida Move

In 14 years of law practice, the clients who move here for the tax are usually still being taxed by the state they left. I prepare the Florida side of these moves, and I read the residency and death tax decisions that come out of the states people are leaving, because the argument is always made under that state’s rules rather than ours.

In one case I have reviewed, a couple who had built a business in a city in the middle of the country retired and moved to Florida, and they meant it. They updated their passports to show Florida addresses. They moved business relationships here and hired a Florida attorney. Both of them testified about their intention to live in Florida for good.

Their state taxed them as residents anyway, for four straight years, and its highest court affirmed that result in 2022. What struck me reading it is how small and how factual the state’s evidence was. Two of their daughters still lived in the old city. The husband had kept a senior golf membership at the country club there. Vehicles, a jet ski, a boat and a boat trailer were all still registered up north. And during the four years under audit, he made forty-four political contributions.

A political contribution is a public filing with an address on it. I count forty-four of them, spread across the exact years the state was auditing, as forty-four written statements about where a man thought he lived, and I doubt he considered any of them a tax decision. The court applied a presumption against any change of domicile, put the burden of proof on the couple, and declined to reweigh the facts. The husband had died by then, and his personal representative was the one still litigating it.

In reading that decision with Florida arrivals in mind, I have a few take-home points.

The first is registrations. A boat trailer and a golf membership are the cheapest facts in the file to change and among the easiest for an auditor to count, because each one sits in a public or institutional record with a date and an address attached. I would rather spend an afternoon moving those than argue later about what somebody intended, and I ask about the boat, because people volunteer the house and forget the trailer.

The second is that the numbers on the other side are large enough to justify the afternoon. Massachusetts taxes estates over $2,000,000 and Oregon starts at $1,000,000, while the federal exemption sits near $15,000,000, so a family worth $3,000,000 can be entirely clear federally and squarely inside a state bill. The Florida side of the fix is priced in the hundreds. A Declaration of Domicile is a flat fee from $350, or $499 for a couple, because a couple is two separate declarations, with the notary and the county recording additional. A Florida estate plan is a flat fee from $1,200 for one person and $1,950 for a couple with a will, or $3,200 and $4,500 with a trust. A domicile review where I map the old state’s factors against your actual year is quoted at the consult. Fees are posted as of September 2026 and honored for 90 days from that date. Measured against a six-figure state assessment, I think the arithmetic answers itself.

Practice pointer. I have clients list every record that carries their address, and we work through it in the year of the move rather than after. The registrations, the club memberships, the medical practice, the mailing address for business correspondence and anything that generates a public filing all belong on that list. My reason is that a move which shrinks the old state is what makes the ties unequal, and unequal is what survives an audit.

Avoid treating the paperwork as the move. What I have not seen a declaration of domicile do is carry a residency question by itself, and I have read a decision where a recorded one lost next to a life that plainly continued somewhere else. A filing is evidence of intent, and a calendar is evidence of a life.

An honest limit belongs here. The case I described was decided about income tax rather than about a death tax, and under one state’s statute, so I would not tell you it settles what your state will do with your estate. Each state weighs these factors differently and some give their auditors more deference than others. Florida imposes no day count of its own, which is genuinely good news, and it also means I cannot tell you from here how many days the state you are leaving will want to see. That answer comes from reading that state’s test with your calendar next to it.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The case described above is a published decision of another state’s supreme court rather than a matter handled by this firm. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Updated on September 8, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. Attorney Kevin Klagge represents families, businesses, and international clients in estate and tax planning, business structuring, and international law, with a focus on Florida legal tools. He litigates estate and business issues in court. General information about Florida and federal law, not legal or tax advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. State tax rules and figures change; outcomes depend on your facts and on coordinating with your home-state counsel. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.