The exclusion amount for Illinois Estate Tax purposes is $4,000,000. The exclusion amount is a taxable threshold and not a credit against tax.
While state laws differ for inheritance taxes, an inheritance must exceed a certain threshold to be considered taxable. For federal estate taxes as of 2024, if the total estate is under $13.61 million for an individual or $27.22 million for a married couple, there's no need to worry about estate taxes.
Illinois Estate Tax Exemption The estate tax threshold for Illinois is $4 million. This means that if you die and your total estate is worth less than $4 million, the estate won't owe anything to the state of Illinois.
The Illinois tax treatment of the settlement follows the federal treatment. If the settlement is subject to federal income tax, it is taxed by Illinois. If it is exempt from federal taxation, it is not taxed by Illinois.
In Illinois, the settlement of an estate typically involves the probate process. Probate is a legal procedure that includes validating a will, identifying and appraising assets, settling debts, and distributing assets to beneficiaries.
Instead, it taxes all capital gains as ordinary income, using the same rates and brackets as the regular state income tax. Illinois is one of the states with a flat income tax rate. In the case of Illinois, no matter the amount of taxable ordinary income, the state tax rate will always be 4.95%.
Business Income Tax Corporations – 7 percent of net income. Trusts and estates – 4.95 percent of net income.
The state of Illinois does not set a specific time limit for settling an estate, but it does expect executors and probate courts to handle the process as efficiently and diligently as possible. Because of the variation in estates, the length of the process can vary from several months to several years.