Understanding Estate Taxes
3. Individual estate tax exemption
Your estate will have to pay estate taxes if its net value when you die is more than the "exempt" amount set by Congress at that time. How much of your estate will be exempt depends upon when you die.
Here is the current schedule. In 2008, the estate tax exemption is $2 million. Notice that the estate tax is scheduled to be "repealed" in 2010, but under current law, it will come back in 2011...with the exemption back at $1 million.