Does Florida Have an Inheritance Tax? (2026)

Florida homestead: who gets the house

Florida protects the family home more strongly than most states, and the rules can surprise families who assumed the will settles everything. They apply to the owner's Florida homestead, not to a second home or rental.

• The will may not control the house. Article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution says the homestead is not subject to devise if the owner is survived by a spouse or minor child, except that it may be left to the spouse if there is no minor child. (source)
• Life estate and remainder. When the restriction applies, a surviving spouse takes a life estate and the owner's descendants take the remainder, shared by family line. (source)
• The spouse's 6-month election. Instead of the life estate, the spouse may elect to take an undivided half interest as a tenant in common, with the other half going to the descendants. The election must be made within 6 months of the death and is irrevocable. Only a timely petition by the spouse's guardian or attorney in fact extends the deadline. (source)
• Waivers. A spouse can give up homestead rights in a written agreement or waiver under §732.702, signed before or during the marriage. If it is signed during the marriage, each spouse must first make a fair disclosure of their estate. (source)

Property tax when the house passes to the children

• The Save Our Homes cap ends. While your parent had the homestead exemption, the assessed value could rise no more than 3% a year or the change in the consumer price index, whichever is lower. After a change of ownership, the home is reassessed at full just value as of January 1 of the next year. (source)
• Exceptions. A transfer to a surviving spouse, or by operation of law to a surviving spouse or minor child under §732.401, is not a change of ownership. Neither is a transfer to a permanent resident who was legally or naturally dependent on the owner. (source)
• If you move in. Making the house your own permanent residence lets you apply for your own homestead exemption, worth up to $50,000 off the assessed value, and the annual cap starts again from the new value. (source)

Settling a small Florida estate

• Summary administration, now up to $150,000. Since July 1, 2026, summary administration (§735.201) is available when the Florida estate subject to administration, not counting property exempt from creditors such as the protected homestead, is worth $150,000 or less, or when the person has been dead for more than two years. The limit was $75,000 before chapter 2026-57. If the person died before July 1, 2026, ask the probate clerk which limit applies to your petition. (source)
• Creditors still come first. Before the court enters an order of summary administration, the person asking for it must make a diligent search for creditors, serve them with the petition and provide for paying them from the available assets. (source)
• Disposition without administration. If the only property left is exempt property and other personal property worth no more than the funeral bill plus medical and hospital costs from the last 60 days of illness, no administration is needed. The court can authorize the transfer on an informal application by letter or affidavit. (source)
• Small bank accounts. A bank may pay up to $2,000 from accounts in the person's sole name, with no payable-on-death designation, to a surviving spouse, then an adult child, then another adult descendant, then a parent. It cannot pay earlier than 6 months after the death and needs a death certificate and a sworn affidavit. (source)

Capital gains: Florida is not a community property state

• Your basis is the value at death. If you inherit the house, stocks or other property, your cost basis is the fair market value on the date of death. Selling soon after for about that value leaves little or no gain. (source)
• For a married couple, half steps up. When spouses own property jointly with survivorship, half its value is included in the first spouse's estate. The survivor's basis is the cost of their own half plus the new value of the half they inherited, so part of the old gain survives. (source)
• Couples who moved from a community property state. Personal property, and Florida real estate other than the homestead or property held by the entireties, that a married couple acquired as community property in another state, or bought with it, keeps that character at death under §732.217. Ask a tax adviser whether it qualifies for the full step-up that community property gets. (source)

Serving as personal representative in Florida

• Out-of-state relatives can serve, friends cannot. Someone who does not live in Florida can be personal representative only if related to the person who died: a spouse, a child or other descendant, a parent, a sibling, an aunt, uncle, niece or nephew, someone descended from one of them, an adopted child or adoptive parent, or the spouse of anyone on that list. (source)
• Publish notice to shorten the creditor window. Once notice to creditors is published, claims are barred unless filed within 3 months of the first publication, or 30 days after service for a creditor who had to be served. Without that, claims can still be enforced for up to 2 years after the death. (source)
• Presumed reasonable fees. In formal administration the personal representative's fee is presumed reasonable at 3% of the first $1 million, 2.5% from $1 million to $5 million, 2% from $5 million to $10 million and 1.5% above that. On a $600,000 estate that is $18,000. (source)

No Florida tax on an inherited IRA

• No state income tax. Florida does not impose personal income tax, inheritance tax or gift tax. A Florida resident who withdraws from an inherited traditional IRA or 401(k) owes only federal income tax on it. (source)
• Where you live decides. State income tax follows the heir, not the person who died. A Florida parent's IRA left to a child in California is taxed on that child's California return when the money comes out. (source)

If the person who died lived in another state

Florida's lack of a death tax protects only property governed by Florida law. If the person who died was legally domiciled in another state, or kept a house or condo up north, that state's rules decide what the estate and heirs owe there. Five states tax heirs directly.

• Kentucky inheritance tax
• Maryland inheritance tax
• Nebraska inheritance tax
• New Jersey inheritance tax
• Pennsylvania inheritance tax

What matters is where the person who died lived and where their real estate is, not where you live. Compare inheritance tax by state to see who pays and how much.