Washington’s Estate Tax Is Hefty
Washington doesn’t have an inheritance tax, but it makes the list of states having the costliest death taxes because it has the highest estate tax rate of any state in the nation—20 percent. The tax admittedly applies only to estates valued at over $9 million, but that’s still 4 percent more than any other state in the country.
You’d have to be pretty wealthy before you’d have to worry about your estate paying that top rate, but the estate tax exemption here is just $2.193 million as of 2019. Even estates that just inch over this threshold will have pay a 10 percent rate. The rate increases with the value of the estate over this exemption amount.
