The 6% estate tax after the standard deduction and family home deduction.
Estate tax due
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Net taxable estate
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Family home deduction
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Standard deduction
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What the heirs owe before they inherit
When someone passes away in the Philippines, the law treats the property they leave behind as a taxable estate, and an estate tax return must be filed with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) before the assets can be transferred and titles moved into the heirs' names. The fear families carry is that the government takes a large bite of everything Lolo or Lola built. In practice the tax is far gentler than people expect, for two reasons this calculator makes plain: the rate is a flat 6 percent, not a steep ladder, and generous deductions come off the top first, so the 6 percent often applies to a much smaller base than the headline estate value. Enter the gross estate, the debts and expenses, and the family home value, and the tool returns the net taxable estate and the tax due.
The deductions that shrink the base
Three things come off the gross estate before any tax is computed in this model. First, actual debts and expenses, the loans the deceased still owed and the legitimate costs of settling the estate. Second, a standard deduction, a flat allowance granted to every estate with no receipts required, which this calculator sets at PHP 5,000,000. Third, the family home, deductible up to a cap that the tool applies at PHP 10,000,000; a home worth more than the cap is still limited to that ceiling. Only what survives all three is taxed, and at just 6 percent. These figures are the calculator's working assumptions, so confirm the current standard deduction and family-home cap with the BIR, because they are set by statute and can change.
A PHP 20 million estate worked through
Take a gross estate of PHP 20,000,000, with PHP 1,000,000 of debts and expenses and a family home worth PHP 8,000,000, using the rates this calculator applies. The home is under the cap, so the full PHP 8,000,000 is deductible. Subtract the PHP 1,000,000 debts, the PHP 5,000,000 standard deduction, and the PHP 8,000,000 home, and the net taxable estate is PHP 6,000,000. Six percent of that is PHP 360,000. On a PHP 20,000,000 estate, the tax works out to under 2 percent of the gross, which surprises most families.
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The chart shows how little of the gross estate the tax actually touches. The deductions claim most of the bar, leaving a thin taxable sliver, and the 6 percent applies only to that sliver.
Deadlines, instalments, and the amnesty trap
The tax itself is the easy part; the timing is what catches families out. The estate tax return is generally due within a year of death, and the BIR may allow payment by instalment when the estate is short of cash. Miss the window and surcharges and interest pile on, which is how a manageable bill balloons. A second, very Filipino problem is the unsettled estate left for a generation: when Lolo's land was never transferred and now passes through several deceased heirs, each death can trigger its own estate tax, compounding the cost. The government has periodically offered an estate tax amnesty to clear exactly these backlogs, so if you are sitting on an old untransferred title, check with the BIR whether an amnesty is currently open before computing the regular tax.
Do small estates pay any estate tax at all?
Often not. With a standard deduction the tool sets at PHP 5,000,000 plus a family home deduction and actual debts, a modest estate built around the family house can be fully covered, leaving zero tax. The return may still need to be filed to transfer the titles, but the tax due can be nothing. Enter your figures and the calculator will tell you directly when the deductions wipe out the base.
Is the 6 percent charged on the property's old cost or its current value?
Estate tax is based on the fair market value at the time of death, not the price originally paid. For real property the BIR generally uses the higher of the zonal value or the assessor's market value. This matters because land bought cheaply decades ago is valued at today's level for the estate, so use current valuations when you enter the gross estate, and have the property appraised against BIR zonal values.