How much is inheritance tax on money from a parent in PA?

Money left to a child or grandchild is taxed at 4.5 percent under 72 P.S. § 9116. So a $200,000 inheritance to a child runs about $9,000 in tax. Pay within three months and the 5 percent discount trims that. This is also why people confuse it with the federal estate tax, which most families never owe at all.

How long do I have to file a PA inheritance tax return?

Nine months from the date of death to file and pay, with a 5 percent discount if you pay within three. Here's the thing. Those two dates run from the death, not from when you were appointed or when you found the forms. If you're already past three months, we focus on the nine-month deadline before interest starts.

Do I owe inheritance tax on my mom's joint bank account?

Usually yes. The decedent's share is taxable if the account was open more than a year before death. The reality is most families assume a survivorship account passes tax-free, and it doesn't. We see this constantly with parents in Squirrel Hill and Shadyside who added an adult child to checking for convenience. The signature card usually decides it.

Is money left to my kids taxed differently?

Children and grandchildren pay the 4.5 percent lineal rate, and transfers to a parent from a child 21 or under are taxed at zero. If minor children are inheriting, the tax is only half the issue. Who holds the money for them, and how, is the part that actually protects them, and it's worth a separate conversation about guardianship and trusts.

Does a filing extension give me more time to pay?

No. An extension to file is not an extension to pay, and interest still accrues after nine months. Look, this is the misunderstanding that costs people the most. The extension request you send to the Bureau of Individual Taxes in Harrisburg buys time for the paperwork, not the bill. We plan the payment separately, on its own clock.

What if the executor won't file the return?

If the executor stalls, a beneficiary who received property may have to file and pay on their own share. Bottom line? The state's interest clock doesn't pause for a family standoff. If a sibling-executor is sitting on things, you have options, and the sooner we look at them the cheaper they are. This is a common reason people call.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY · PENNSYLVANIA INHERITANCE TAX RETURN

Q: Where do I file an inheritance tax return in Allegheny County?

At the Inheritance Tax Department in Room 216 of the City-County Building, 414 Grant Street, Pittsburgh. Bring two signed copies, $10 for the original, and a money order or certified check made out to "Register of Wills, Agent." From the North Hills it's about 25 minutes down I-79, and budget for a Grant Street garage. We handle this filing for clients so you never make the trip.

You didn't ask to be in charge of this. Now there's a deadline.

It's late. The funeral was a few weeks ago. And somewhere in the stack of paperwork you just understood that you're the one who has to file the inheritance tax return. You've read the words "nine months" three times, and your stomach drops a little each time.

What you're actually asking is simpler than the forms make it sound. Am I going to owe money I don't have? And am I going to get something wrong that the rest of the family blames me for?

You don't have to guess.

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The Plain-English Definition

A Pennsylvania inheritance tax return, filed on Form REV-1500, is the document that reports what a Pennsylvania resident owned at death and calculates the tax owed by the people who inherit it. Pennsylvania taxes the inheritance, not the size of the estate, so the rate depends entirely on your relationship to the person who died. A surviving spouse pays nothing. Children, grandchildren, and parents pay 4.5 percent. Siblings pay 12 percent. Everyone else pays 15 percent. The return is due nine months after the date of death, and you can shave 5 percent off the bill by paying within three.

Three things that shape every Pennsylvania inheritance tax case:

The tax and the rates come straight from the Inheritance and Estate Tax Act (72 P.S. § 9116). They don't bend for hardship, so the planning happens around them.
The return is filed and paid county by county. In Allegheny County that means the Inheritance Tax Department inside the Department of Court Records, not a separate Register of Wills office like most counties use.
If you think the state valued something wrong, the appeal runs through Orphans' Court under Pa.R.A.P. 342(a)(7). There's a clock on that too.

PRO TIP FROM FILING THESE IN PERSON

Allegheny County wants the return in duplicate, charges a $10 fee on the original, and won't take a personal check. Bring a money order or certified check made out to "Register of Wills, Agent," or you're making a second trip down to Room 216 of the City-County Building.

The Hard Truth

The part nobody tells you up front

Will I have to sell the house to pay this? Did I already make a mistake by moving Mom's money out of her account "to keep it safe"? Is my brother right that I'm dragging my feet on something I don't understand?
Those aren't paranoid questions. They're the right ones. The people who get inheritance tax wrong almost never do it out of carelessness. They do it because they were grieving, the instructions read like a foreign language, and nobody warned them which moves cost real money.

Here's the thing most people don't realize: waiting isn't neutral. The 5 percent discount disappears at the three-month mark, whether or not the full return is done. After nine months, interest starts running on whatever's unpaid. The clock started the day of the death, not the day you found the forms.

Cost of Inaction

What waiting actually costs

The urge to set this aside and deal with it later is completely human. There's a lot on you right now. But a few specific things get more expensive the longer the return sits, and they're worth knowing before you decide to wait.

The 5 percent discount expires.

Pay the inheritance tax within three months of the death and Pennsylvania knocks 5 percent off. You don't even need the final return done. An estimated payment locks it in. On a $200,000 inheritance to a child, that's real money left on the table if the date slides past.

Interest starts at nine months.

People assume a filing extension buys them more time to pay. It doesn't. An extension to file is not an extension to pay, and interest accrues on any unpaid tax once nine months pass, no matter what extension paperwork you sent to Harrisburg.

The house gets stuck.

Unpaid inheritance tax creates a lien on estate property under 72 P.S. § 9109. Title companies won't insure a sale until the REV-1500 is resolved. That Wexford or Sewickley home you're trying to sell can't close while the tax sits open.

Joint accounts can become your problem.

If you're the executor and you distribute a joint survivorship account before the tax on it is settled, you can be held personally responsible for the shortfall. Our Supreme Court said as much in a Westmoreland County case next door, Estate of Baker. Moving the money first is the mistake.

None of this is meant to scare you. It's the honest version of what I'd tell you across the table. Most of these problems are easy to avoid if you know about them early, and miserable to undo once the dates have passed.

You don't have to have it figured out before you call. That's what the call is for.

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Procedural Roadmap

How filing actually goes in Allegheny County

The filing happens downtown at the City-County Building, 414 Grant Street, in the shadow of the old Richardson courthouse. From our Warrendale office it's about 25 minutes down I-79 and 279, plus the real downtown sport of finding a garage on Grant Street. I've made that drive more times than I can count. Here's the path your estate follows.

Get appointed. Before you can file anything, the estate has to be opened and you have to be named executor or administrator through the Department of Court Records. If there's no will, you're an administrator, which carries the same duties with a little more paperwork up front.
Inventory what's taxable. Real estate, bank and brokerage accounts, vehicles, and life insurance get sorted into what's taxed and what isn't. The trap is joint accounts. The decedent's fractional share is usually taxable if the account was open more than a year, and most families guess wrong on this.
Pay early if you can. If there's cash available, we get an estimated payment in before the three-month mark to capture the 5 percent discount. You can reconcile the exact number later. This single step often saves the estate more than my fee.
File the REV-1500, in duplicate, by month nine. The return goes to Room 216 of the City-County Building, two signed copies, $10 on the original, no personal checks. We claim the deductions you're entitled to, including funeral costs, administration expenses, and the $3,500 family exemption under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3121.
Review the assessment. The state sends back a Notice of Inheritance Tax Appraisement. If the value is off, we have a tight window to appeal through the Orphans' Court under Pa.R.A.P. 342(a)(7) and 72 Pa.C.S. § 9186. Most estates never need this. The ones that do are glad someone was watching the number.
Clear the lien and close. Once the tax is paid and the lien is cleared, the home in Cranberry or the family business in Sewickley can be sold or transferred clean, and you can finally distribute and close the estate.

ANONYMIZED CASE STUDY · PENNSYLVANIA INHERITANCE TAX RETURN · ALLEGHENY COUNTY

Case Study

One estate, start to finish

THE SITUATION: A daughter in Wexford came in as executor for her late mother. The estate was a paid-off home and a joint savings account, roughly $60,000, that the daughter had been added to years earlier. Worried about "protecting" it, she'd already moved that money into her own account. The funeral was three weeks past. The three-month discount window had about eight weeks left.

WHAT WAS AT STAKE: The decedent's share of that joint account was taxable at the 4.5 percent lineal rate under 72 P.S. § 9116, and as executor she had a duty to hold back enough to cover it. Having already moved the funds, she risked being personally surcharged. Meanwhile a lien sat on the Wexford house, and a buyer was waiting to close.

WHAT WE DID: We filed an estimated payment before the three-month mark to lock in the 5 percent discount. We prepared the REV-1500 in duplicate, reported the fractional joint-account share correctly, and claimed the funeral, administration, and family exemption deductions. The tax was paid, the lien cleared, and the house closed on schedule. She stopped lying awake over a surcharge she didn't know she'd risked.

Why This Attorney

Why it matters that I do this every week

Estate administration and Pennsylvania inheritance tax aren't a sideline at this firm. They're the work. I've spent more than a decade guiding Pennsylvania families through probate, REV-1500 filings, and the Allegheny County system specifically, and I know the people behind the counter in Room 216 by name.

What shaped how I practice is simple. I've watched too many good people, executors who were only trying to do right by a parent, lose money or trigger a fight because nobody told them the rules in plain language and in time. So I got precise about dates, deductions, and the joint-account traps. Precision is the kindness here, not sympathy.

I don't measure a job by how fast I closed the estate. I measure it by whether the family is still speaking to each other afterward, and whether they kept what was meant to stay in the family.

I keep my caseload small on purpose. When you hire me, you get me, not a handoff to someone you've never met.

Founder · Entrusted Legacy Law Pennsylvania licensed attorney Academy of Special Needs Planners Westmoreland Bar Association Offices in Warrendale, Devon & Erie

Technical Glossary

Three terms worth understanding before anything else

Lineal descendant This is the legal label for children, grandchildren, and on down the family line, including adopted children and stepchildren. It matters because it sets your tax rate. For most North Hills families, where a parent leaves the house and accounts to their kids, this is the 4.5 percent bracket, and it's why a sibling or a niece pays so much more on the very same inheritance. [Citation pill] → 72 P.S. § 9116

Inheritance tax appraisement After you file, the state sends back its own valuation of the estate and the tax it says you owe. That document is the appraisement, and it's the thing you can actually challenge. If the state overvalues a Sewickley home or a closely held business, the appeal goes to Allegheny County's Orphans' Court on a short clock, so the appraisement is not a notice you set aside to read later. [Citation pill] → Pa.R.A.P. 342(a)(7)

Fractional joint-account share When someone adds another person to a survivorship account, the law treats part of that account as the decedent's at death. That portion is taxable, even though the money "automatically" passed to the survivor. This is the single most common surprise we see in Allegheny County estates, and our Supreme Court has been clear that what the signature card says usually controls. [Citation pill] → Estate of Gillespie (1975)

Frequently asked questions

What Clients Say

I reached out to Entrusted Legacy Law as after the passing of a family member I wanted to ensure I had l of my assets in place for my family. I reached out to them and received a response the next day, and quickly moved through the process and met with Nadja who was friendly and detailed during our initial review. Ashley and the team were very helpful and thorough in answering all of my questions during the signing.

Ivy D.

What a great experience! Everyone was so helpful and explained everything along the way. Nobody wants to think about what happens after they are gone but I feel confident that I did what is right for my family so they have one less thing to worry about when the time comes. Thank you so much!!!

Melissa F

Ashley and her team are a working definition of professional. All my questions and concerns were addressed clearly and comprehensively. The "legal jargon" replaced with real down to earth, clear explanation. I felt like they cared about me as much as their own family. Do yourself a favor and trust your estate planning to Entrusted Legacy Law - You'll be grateful you did.

Rick D.

BEFORE YOU CALL

How This Works

I don't take every case. Here's why that's good for you.

I keep my caseload small and I'm honest about whether I'm the right person for what you're facing. The first call isn't a pitch. It's a real conversation about your situation and whether I can actually help.

On that call I'll ask direct questions. When did the death happen. What's in the estate. Is there a will, a house, a joint account, a deadline bearing down. By the end you'll have a clear read on where you stand and a concrete next step, whether or not you ever hire me.

And if it's not the right match, I won't leave you with a phone book. I'll give you a name. An actual person I know and trust in this community, because my reputation here rides on who I send you to.

If it is a match, we move fast. Because the other side already is.

You've been carrying this alone. Long enough. Call me.

In one conversation you'll know roughly what the estate owes, whether the discount window is still open, and exactly what your next move is.

Not peace of mind. A plan.

Confidential. No pressure. No obligation. Serving Wexford, Franklin Park, Sewickley, Cranberry, Pittsburgh, and the North Hills.

Entrusted Legacy Law 100 Pinewood Lane, Suite #303, Warrendale, PA 15086 About 25 minutes from the City-County Building on Grant Street, down I-79, near the old Allegheny County Courthouse downtown. (412) 347-1731

Pennsylvania licensed attorney Academy of Special Needs Planners Westmoreland Bar Association