Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 27, 2026 · Updated August 19, 2026

New Hampshire Has No Estate or Inheritance Tax, But the Elderly Exemption Ends When Ownership Does

Updated August 2026

New Hampshire requires a full property revaluation at least every five years, but nothing in that cycle ties reassessment to a change of ownership. Inheriting a home doesn't reset anything the town's own schedule wasn't already going to do. The state's well-known lack of a broad-based income or sales tax extends to inheritances too: New Hampshire has neither an estate tax nor an inheritance tax. What does require attention is the state's Elderly Exemption, which is tied tightly to the individual applicant and doesn't survive a change in ownership.

A Five-Year Floor, Not an Ownership Trigger

RSA 75:8-a requires assessors and selectmen to reappraise all real estate in the municipality to full and true value at least once every five years, measured from the town's last Department of Revenue Administration-monitored revaluation. That's a floor on how long assessments can go unreviewed, not a rule triggered by any particular transaction. No provision singles out inheritance, or any other transfer, as a separate reassessment event; the property stays on the town's own cycle.

The Elderly Exemption Requires a Fresh Application

RSA 72:39-a lets towns grant an exemption to residents 65 and older who've lived in New Hampshire at least three consecutive years, subject to town-set income and asset limits (with statutory floors of at least $13,400 single or $20,400 married for income, and at least $35,000 in net assets excluding the residence and up to two acres). Applications are filed on a permanent basis under RSA 72:33, due by April 15, and the applicant has to certify they're "the true and lawful owner of the property." Once filed, an application stays valid year to year only "so long as the applicant does not change residence," which ties the exemption to the specific qualifying person, not the parcel.

The statute's only continuation provision is narrow: if an owner receiving the exemption dies while residing with a spouse, the combined net asset calculation continues to apply to that surviving spouse specifically, until the property is sold or transferred or the spouse remarries. Any other heir, an adult child or otherwise, is a new applicant who has to independently meet the residency, income, and asset requirements and file their own PA-29 application.

No Estate or Inheritance Tax, and No Interest and Dividends Tax Either

The Department of Revenue Administration's own guidance is direct: the old Legacy and Succession Tax was repealed for deaths on or after January 1, 2003, along with the separate transfer tax on nonresident decedents' personal property. New Hampshire's own estate tax return requirement lapsed for deaths on or after January 1, 2005, tied to the federal repeal of the state death tax credit. There is no state-level tax on the inheritance itself today.

New Hampshire has also fully retired its Interest and Dividends Tax, the closest thing it had to a general income tax, repealed for taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2024. Combined with having no broad income tax or sales tax to begin with, an heir inheriting a New Hampshire home faces no state-level tax exposure from the inheritance transaction itself.

Appealing the Assessment

RSA 561:1 sets out New Hampshire's intestate distribution scheme, and while the statute text doesn't spell out a bare "vests immediately at death" sentence, that's the standard, generally accepted rule: property descends to heirs or devisees at death, subject to the estate's administration.

The appeal process runs on a fixed statewide timeline. An abatement application to the local assessing officials is due by March 1 following the December tax bill, under RSA 76:16, which extends standing to "any person aggrieved by the assessment," not only the record owner. If the municipality denies or doesn't respond, an appeal to the Board of Tax and Land Appeals or Superior Court is due by September 1, per RSA 76:16-a, with a $65 filing fee. Neither statute explicitly addresses an heir's standing before probate closes, so if that's your situation, it's worth confirming with the municipality or a probate attorney rather than assuming either way.

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