Every state taxes investors differently. Here is how Texas treats capital gains at the top rate, the marriage penalty, estate and inheritance tax at death, municipal-bond interest, the §1202 QSBS exclusion, and a harvested loss, a plain reference to the state's tax code.
~$37,000/yr per $1M taxable
What tax-aware portfolio management alone is worth in Texas about +3.7%/yr modeled: ~6.3%/yr kept after tax against ~2.7%/yr on a concentrated book. Scales with the portfolio.
This is the floor. It counts the portfolio only and leaves the estate, gifting, and residency coordination at zero, where the larger opportunities usually sit. Illustrative and hypothetical, not a track record: a model applied retroactively to ~30 years of proxy-spliced data, no client capital invested.
Texas levies no state income tax on capital gains; no state death tax; community-property step-up (a full basis step-up at the first death).
Texas has no state income tax, constitutionally restricted, and pairs a strong homestead exemption with a community-property regime, so community assets receive a full basis step-up at the first spouse's death. Property and sales taxes carry more of the state's revenue.
How to think about Texas
One of the five lenses reads high or severe in Texas: basis coordination.
Five lenses turn Texas's tax environment into a household decision, the same lenses every state is read through, so any two states weigh on identical terms.
Rate pressure
No state tax on gains, every realized gain keeps its full federal-only outcome.
Estate exposure
No state estate or inheritance tax, only the federal estate tax reaches the estate.
Harvesting leverage
With no state tax on gains, a harvested loss recovers only its federal value, the state adds no rate for it to offset.
Mobility value
Already a no-income-tax, no-estate-tax state, the destination other households move toward, not from.
Basis coordination
Community-property state: community assets get a FULL step-up at the first death, title them so the survivor keeps that basis.
Coordination priorities for Texas households
Asset titling for step-up· with your estate attorney
Titling assets to capture the fullest basis step-up the marital-property regime allows at the first death.
What should happen next
estate attorneyAsk how each taxable account is titled today, and what Texas law does to basis at a first death for that form of ownership. Titling is recorded on custodial paperwork, so this is a document check rather than an opinion.Bring: The registration page of each taxable account.
See the figure on your own Texas portfolio.
The personalized diagnostic computes your after-tax, asset-location, and harvesting picture, by bracket and holdings.
For a CPA, attorney, or advisor: the
Texas coordination brief is a printable summary of this
page, written to be sent to a client as it stands. It asks the reader for nothing and names no
household.
The rules themselves
Income & gains0%
How are capital gains taxed in Texas?
No state tax on capital gains, and a harvested loss is worth only the federal rate here.
No state income tax, no marriage penalty on the state return.
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State income-tax filing schedules, tax year 2025, verify with a tax advisor.
Death
Does Texas have a state estate or inheritance tax?
No state estate or inheritance tax, only the federal estate tax applies.
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State estate/inheritance statutes, tax year 2025, confirm with counsel.
Munisexempt
How does Texas tax municipal-bond interest?
Municipal-bond interest is exempt from state tax whether the issuer is in-state or out-of-state, the broadest muni preference (states with no tax on investment income, plus a few that exempt all munis by statute).
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State income-tax statutes on municipal-bond interest, tax year 2025, verify with a tax advisor.
QSBSno §1202
Does Texas follow the federal QSBS (§1202) exclusion?
No distinct state QSBS position applies here, either the jurisdiction levies no tax on the gain, or it does not separately recognize the §1202 exclusion. Confirm with a tax advisor.
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State IRC-conformity statutes on §1202, tax year 2025, verify with a tax advisor.
Losses
What happens to a capital loss you carry forward in Texas?
No state tax on capital gains, so a harvested loss carries no state benefit; its value here is only the federal offset.
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State capital-loss carryforward rules, tax year 2025, verify with a tax advisor.
Basis step-upCP
Community-property state: BOTH halves of community property step up to fair market value at the first spouse's death (IRC 1014(b)(6)), a major basis advantage.
Summary of state law, primary-source citation in progress. State marital-property law / IRS Pub. 555; IRC 1014, verify with counsel.
What careful tax management can change
Tax law is only half the picture. How a portfolio is
built and run, where each holding sits, how losses are used, how gains are timed, decides how
much of Texas's tax code you actually pay. The figure at the top of this page is what
that difference is worth in Texas; these are the levers behind it.
Modeled on a single proxy-spliced path, 1996 to 2026.
Directional, not a precise figure.
Asset location
The bridge between how you invest and how the household is structured, placing the higher-turnover strategy in Roth and Traditional accounts, where its short-term gains escape tax entirely. Coordination itself; quantified for each household in the After-Tax Lab.
Patient trading and lot selection
Holds positions through short-term noise and chooses which lots to sell, turning gains that would be taxed as ordinary income into long-term gains taxed roughly 17 points lower.
Loss harvesting
Realizes losses and applies them against the highest-taxed gains first, capturing a spread a simple buy-and-hold fund never reaches.
We will email you the Tax Diagnostic set to Texas, straight away, and follow up personally within a business day. One message, no list, and we never share your address.
State law reflects 2025 tax-year law; last reviewed 2026-07-07. Every classification is a summary of state law; where a primary-source citation has been verified, it is linked on the card.
What changed
2026-07-07, First law-review date and honest per-cell source labeling; primary-source citations verified for Illinois, California, New York, Texas, and Florida (more in progress).
2025, Washington's 7% (+2.9%) excise on long-term capital gains reflected (enacted 2022).
2025, New Hampshire's Interest & Dividends tax reflected as fully repealed, effective 2025.
2025, Illinois estate-tax detail tracks the pending SB 2970 as of the review date.
Illustrative / hypothetical, not a real track record and not advice. The tax-management impact figure is a hypothetical, after-tax result from the retroactive application of a tax-management model to ~30 years of proxy-spliced market data on a single illustrative path; no client capital was invested, and hypothetical performance does not guarantee future results. Intended for sophisticated investors; it may not be relevant to your situation, and your actual figure depends on your own holdings, basis, and bracket. State tax facts reflect tax year 2025 and can change, confirm with a tax advisor. Driftwood Wealth is the private-wealth practice of Alec Messino. Securities products and advisory services offered through Park Avenue Securities LLC (PAS), member FINRA, SIPC. Alec Messino is a Registered Representative and Financial Advisor of PAS. Driftwood Wealth is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS. All figures are illustrative models for educational purposes, not investment, tax, or legal advice, and not a recommendation.