Hi,

if someone is receiving an inheritance of approx. 100k living in the state of california will there be an inheritance tax?

Thank you

Probably not but I don't know about California specifically. There's no federal tax, but California MIGHT have a tax on $100K. But $100K would be pretty low for an inheritance tax to kick in.

Don't know about any California taxation. But for federal tax, it's the estate that distributes inheritance money, not the beneficiaries receiving it, that is responsible for paying any estate taxes. And while estate tax issues can get complicated, generally the first $2 million is tax-exempt from estate taxes anyway during 2008.

That said, there could be federal INCOME taxes to deal with in certain circumstances (like, if the money received is an IRA or stocks that you sell). Not a bad idea to get a CPA to review what's happening unless you're sure it's just cash straight out of a bank account.