---
kind: "section"
citation: "26 U.S.C. § 2641"
title: "26"
title_heading: "Internal Revenue Code"
number: "2641"
heading: "Applicable rate"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/26/2641"
units:
  - "Subtitle B — Estate and Gift Taxes"
  - "Chapter 13 — Tax on Generation-Skipping Transfers"
  - "Subchapter E — Applicable Rate; Inclusion Ratio"
---

# §2641. Applicable rate

- (a) **General rule—** For purposes of this chapter, the term “applicable rate” means, with respect to any [generation-skipping transfer](/usc/26/2611.md?p=a), the product of—
  - (1) the maximum Federal estate tax rate, and
  - (2) the inclusion ratio with respect to the transfer.
- (b) **Maximum Federal estate tax rate—** For purposes of [subsection (a)](#a), the term “maximum Federal estate tax rate” means the maximum rate imposed by [section 2001](/usc/26/2001.md) on the estates of decedents dying at the time of the taxable distribution, taxable termination, or direct skip, as the case may be.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 99–514, title XIV, § 1431(a), Oct. 22, 1986, 100 Stat. 2722.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section applicable to generation-skipping transfers (within the meaning of section 2611 of this title) made after Oct. 22, 1986, except as otherwise provided, see section 1433 of Pub. L. 99–514, set out as a note under section 2601 of this title.

### Modification of Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax

Pub. L. 111–312, title III, § 302(c), Dec. 17, 2010, 124 Stat. 3302, provided that: “In the case of any generation-skipping transfer made after December 31, 2009, and before January 1, 2011, the applicable rate determined under section 2641(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall be zero.”