Texas Estate and Inheritance Tax: None, Banned in 2025

Texas is one of the states where the answer to "what will my heirs owe the state?" is nothing, and since 2025 that answer is written into the state Constitution rather than resting only on the absence of a statute.

This guide sets out how Texas got here, what the constitutional amendment does and does not cover, and what can still apply to a Texas estate through federal law. It uses the Texas Comptroller's repeal bulletin, the Texas Legislature's bill text and analysis, the Governor's proclamation published in the Texas Register, and the IRS estate and gift tax page, all read on 2 November 2026.

What Texas Charges

Texas charges no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. The Texas Inheritance Tax was imposed by Tax Code Chapter 211, and the Comptroller announced that it was repealed effective 1 September 2015 by Senate Bill 752 of the 84th Regular Session (2015). The Senate Research Center's analysis of that bill said the tax had not been collected in Texas in almost 10 years. It explained that the tax was originally structured to equal the federal estate tax credit for state taxes, and that federal changes had eliminated that credit, so collections had dropped to zero.

We found no Texas estate tax in the sources we read. A state-level death tax on an estate would now conflict with the constitutional ban described below.

The 2025 Constitutional Amendment

H.J.R. 2 of the 89th Legislature added Section 26 to Article VIII of the Texas Constitution. As enrolled, it provides that the Legislature may not:

• impose a state tax on the property of a deceased individual's estate because of the death of the individual, including an estate, inheritance or death tax;
• impose a state tax on the transfer of an estate, inheritance, legacy, succession or gift from an individual, family, estate or trust to another, including a tax on a generation-skipping transfer, if the tax was not in effect on 1 January 2025; or
• increase the rate or expand the applicability of such a transfer tax that was in effect on 1 January 2025.

The section does not prohibit a tax described in Section 29(b) of Article VIII, a tax applicable to the transfer of a motor vehicle by gift, or an ad valorem (property) tax. The election was held on 4 November 2025, and the Governor's proclamation of 19 November 2025, published in the Texas Register, lists Proposition 8 (H.J.R. 2) among the amendments the voters adopted by majority vote.

The gift-tax part works differently from the estate part: the ban on new transfer taxes, including gift taxes, applies to taxes not in effect on 1 January 2025. We did not read a source listing every Texas tax in effect on that date, so this page does not make a separate claim about Texas gift taxes beyond the text of the amendment itself.

What Can Still Apply: the Federal Estate Tax

The federal estate tax is separate from anything Texas does. The IRS says the Working Families Tax Cuts Bill, signed into law on 4 July 2025 as Public Law 119-21, increased the basic exclusion amount to $15,000,000 for calendar year 2026. The IRS also says that estates of decedents survived by a spouse may elect to pass any of the decedent's unused exclusion to the surviving spouse, and that the election is made on a timely filed estate tax return for the decedent.

The IRS page we read did not list a 2027 figure. We therefore state only the 2026 amount; check the IRS page for the year of death before relying on it.

What Changed Recently

• 1 September 2015: the Texas Inheritance Tax (Tax Code Chapter 211) was repealed by Senate Bill 752.
• 4 July 2025: federal law set the 2026 basic exclusion amount at $15,000,000.
• 4 November 2025: voters considered Proposition 8 (H.J.R. 2); the Governor certified the tabulation on 19 November 2025 and the amendment was adopted.

Worked Example (our illustration)

The federal line only shows how far the estate sits above the exclusion. We did not read the IRS rate schedule for this page, so we do not compute a federal tax. The calculation ignores lifetime gifts, deductions and portability. These are our arithmetic, not an official calculation; a real estate needs a professional.

Official Sources

• Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: Texas Inheritance Tax Repealed (bulletin, 26 August 2015)
• Texas Legislature Online: S.B. 752 enrolled bill analysis (84th Legislature, 2015)
• Texas Legislature Online: H.J.R. 2 enrolled text (89th Legislature, 2025)
• Texas Register: Governor's Proclamation 41-4245 (19 November 2025)
• Internal Revenue Service: What's new, estate and gift tax