Inheritance Calculator — what you actually receive

An inheritance calculator answers a much narrower and more personal question than most people expect. It doesn't tell you what the estate as a whole owes the government. It tells you, specifically, what lands in your bank account after the debts are paid, the courts and attorneys take their cut, and — in a small number of states — the tax collector takes a slice of your individual share. Those are three very different deductions happening at three different stages, and conflating them is the single biggest source of confusion when a family starts dividing an estate.

We built this tool because most "estate calculators" online actually calculate the estate tax return, which is a corporate-style filing done by the estate itself before a single dollar reaches an heir. Here at Arb Digital we build calculators and content for real financial questions people search for, and "what will I actually get" is the question that matters to the person sitting across from a probate attorney, not "what is the estate's aggregate taxable value."

What This Inheritance Calculator Does

You enter the total value of the estate, the debts and final expenses that have to be settled first, an estimate for probate or administration costs, how many heirs are splitting the remainder, your own percentage share, and — if you live in or the estate is probated in a state that taxes heirs — a state inheritance tax rate. The calculator walks through the same sequence a probate court or executor follows in the real world: pay the debts, pay the administrative costs, then divide what's left according to the will or state intestacy law, then apply any tax that falls on your specific share.

The result is a single, honest number: your estimated net inheritance. Not the estate's gross value, not your "share" before deductions — what actually clears into your account.

How to Use It

1. Enter the total estate value. Use the fair market value of everything — real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, vehicles, and significant personal property — as of the date of death, or your best current estimate if probate hasn't finished.
2. Enter debts and final expenses. This includes outstanding mortgages, credit cards, medical bills, and funeral costs. These are almost always paid before any heir sees a dollar.
3. Enter a probate or administration cost percentage. Attorney fees, executor fees, court filing costs, and appraisal fees typically run somewhere between 2% and 7% of the estate depending on the state and whether the estate is contested. 4% is a reasonable illustrative default for a straightforward, uncontested estate.
4. Enter the number of heirs and your share. If the estate is split evenly three ways, your share is 33.33%. If the will assigns unequal shares, use your specific percentage instead.
5. Enter a state inheritance tax rate, if applicable. Leave it at 0% unless the estate is probated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, or Iowa, and you don't qualify for a spousal or lineal-descendant exemption — details below.
6. Read your net inheritance. The big number is what's left after every deduction we know to apply. Adjust any input to model a different scenario — for example, what happens to your share if probate costs run 6% instead of 4%.

The Formula — How It's Calculated

The math runs in a fixed order that mirrors how probate actually distributes funds:

Net estate = Total estate value − Debts and final expenses − (Total estate value × Probate cost %)

Your gross share = Net estate × Your share %

State inheritance tax = Your gross share × State tax rate %

Your net inheritance = Your gross share − State inheritance tax

Every dollar of debt, court cost, and tax is deducted before you see your number, which is why the "your gross share" line in the results grid is almost always meaningfully smaller than the naive back-of-envelope math (total estate × your %) that most people do in their head first. For the authoritative federal treatment of estates and inherited assets, see the IRS guidance on deceased taxpayers and estates.

Inheritance Tax Is Not Estate Tax — and the Difference Matters

This is the single most misunderstood concept in estate planning, and it's worth being precise about it. Estate tax is levied on the estate itself, calculated on the total value of everything the deceased owned, and paid by the estate before any assets are distributed. The federal estate tax only applies above a very high exemption threshold (in the millions of dollars per person), so the overwhelming majority of estates owe nothing federally. If you want to model that liability specifically, use our estate tax calculator, which handles the estate's own return, not the heir's take-home amount.

Inheritance tax, by contrast, is levied on the person receiving the assets — you, the heir — and only a handful of states impose it at all: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, Maryland, and Nebraska, with Iowa in the process of phasing its inheritance tax out entirely. Critically, in nearly every one of those states, a surviving spouse is fully exempt, and children or grandchildren either pay nothing or pay at a sharply reduced rate compared to a more distant relative or an unrelated beneficiary. So even if the estate is probated in one of these states, your actual exposure may be zero. Check the specific state's department of revenue rules before assuming any tax applies, and treat the rate you enter here as an editable estimate, not a guarantee.

It's also worth stating plainly: most inheritances — cash, a house, a car, personal belongings — are not taxed as income at the federal level at all. You generally don't report an inheritance as income on your federal tax return. The exception below is the one that trips people up.

Inherited Retirement Accounts Are the Exception

Inherited IRAs, 401(k)s, and similar tax-deferred retirement accounts are treated completely differently from cash or property. Because the original owner never paid income tax on that money, the IRS collects it from whoever inherits the account. Withdrawals from an inherited traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income to the heir in the year they're taken. Under current IRS rules, most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty an inherited retirement account within 10 years of the original owner's death, whether or not they take any distributions in the interim years — a meaningful change from the older "stretch IRA" rules that used to allow withdrawals over a beneficiary's own life expectancy. If you're inheriting a retirement account, run the numbers through our RMD calculator to understand your required distribution schedule and avoid a costly missed-deadline penalty.

The Step-Up in Basis: The Quiet Giant Most Heirs Never Notice

If you inherit an appreciated asset — a house bought decades ago, a stock portfolio that's grown enormously, a piece of land — the IRS generally resets ("steps up") its cost basis to the fair market value on the date of death. That means if a parent bought a house for $80,000 in 1985 and it's worth $500,000 when you inherit it, your basis for tax purposes becomes $500,000, not $80,000. If you sell it soon after inheriting, you may owe little or no capital gains tax, even though the original owner would have owed a substantial amount had they sold it the day before they died. This single rule is often worth far more to heirs than any inheritance tax exemption, and it's the reason many families are advised not to sell an appreciated asset before the original owner's death if it can reasonably be avoided. It does not apply to retirement accounts, which retain their ordinary-income character regardless of basis.

Probate Costs Are Negotiable, Not Fixed

The probate percentage in this calculator is an editable estimate, and for good reason — actual costs vary enormously by state, by whether the estate is contested, and by whether probate can be avoided altogether through a living trust, payable-on-death account designations, or joint ownership with rights of survivorship. Some states set statutory maximum attorney fees as a percentage of the estate; others bill hourly. A well-planned estate with beneficiary designations already in place can bypass probate for a meaningful share of its assets, which is one of the most effective ways to increase what heirs actually receive. If you're the one doing the estate planning rather than receiving an inheritance, that's a conversation worth having with an estate attorney well before it becomes urgent.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming your share equals total estate × your %. Debts, final expenses, and probate costs come off the top first — always calculate against the net estate, not the gross figure.
• Confusing estate tax with inheritance tax. They're different taxes, paid by different parties, at different stages — and most estates and most heirs owe neither.
• Missing the 10-year rule on inherited retirement accounts. Letting an inherited IRA sit untouched past the deadline can trigger IRS penalties on top of the income tax already owed.
• Selling an inherited asset without checking the stepped-up basis. Failing to account for it can mean overpaying capital gains tax on a sale that may owe little or nothing.
• Treating a probate cost estimate as fixed. Get an actual quote from the estate's attorney or executor once probate is underway — this calculator's percentage is a planning estimate, not a bill.
• Forgetting spousal and lineal-descendant exemptions. Even in a state that taxes inheritances, spouses and often children pay little to nothing — don't assume the full rate applies to you.

Related Free Tools From Arb Digital

If you're navigating an estate, these tools work well alongside this one: the estate tax calculator for the estate's own federal tax bill, the RMD calculator for inherited retirement account withdrawals, the emergency fund calculator if you're deciding how much of an inheritance to set aside, the debt snowball calculator if you're using part of it to pay down debt, and the simple interest calculator if you're weighing where to put the rest. You can browse everything in our free online tools hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

This tool provides general estimates for educational purposes only and is not financial, tax, legal, or medical advice. Figures are illustrative; consult a licensed professional for decisions.