This bill reenacts and amends RCW 83.100.020 to change Washington’s estate tax exclusion schedule and to require an annual inflation adjustment. It sets specific "applicable exclusion amount" dollar values tied to decedent death dates, including $2,959,000 for estates of decedents dying on or after August 1, 2025, and establishes an annual adjustment for estates of decedents dying in calendar year 2026 and each calendar year thereafter by multiplying $2,959,000 by one plus the percentage change in the Seattle consumer price index (most recent October vs. October 2024), rounding to the nearest $1,000 and not reducing the amount if the result is the same or less than the prior year. The applicable exclusion amount for an estate is the amount in effect on the decedent’s date of death. The act is effective August 1, 2025. The text defines key terms used in the estate tax chapter (for example, "applicable exclusion amount," "consumer price index," "decedent," "department," "federal taxable estate," "gross estate," "Washington taxable estate," and "person") and identifies the Washington State Department of Revenue as the administering agency. It references federal Internal Revenue Code provisions for federal definitions and for what constitutes transfers and gross estate inclusion. The act also states that RCW 82.32.805 and RCW 82.32.808 do not apply to this legislation. This is a statutory amendment to estate tax law that changes the exclusion amount schedule and creates a procedural change for annual inflation adjustments; it does not create new crimes or change criminal penalties. The extracted text refers to other RCW provisions (RCW 83.100.046, .047, .048, and .120) but does not include their contents, and it notes the bill "creates a new section" without including that section here. The CPI adjustment language uses "the most recent October consumer price index" but the procedural timing for determining "most recent" is not specified in the provided text.

If enacted, Washington would raise the estate tax exemption to $2,959,000 for people who die on or after August 1, 2025, and then automatically increase that exemption each year starting with deaths in 2026 using the Seattle-area consumer price index (comparing the most recent October to October 2024), with the new amount rounded to the nearest $1,000 and never reduced below the prior year. The Department of Revenue must apply whichever exemption amount is in effect on the decedent’s date of death. The most directly affected are estates, personal representatives, and taxpayers who previously faced Washington estate tax; many smaller and mid-sized estates that would have owed tax under the older threshold will likely pay less or owe nothing, which will reduce state estate tax receipts. The Department of Revenue will have new administrative work to apply the higher threshold and carry out annual CPI adjustments. Key implementation details are missing here: the text references other RCW provisions that govern deductions and certain procedures but those are not included, and the rule for determining the “most recent October” CPI for each annual adjustment is not specified.