What Is the Difference Between Estate Tax and Inheritance Tax? Although many people use the terms interchangeably, inheritance tax and estate tax are not the same thing. Estate tax is a tax on the total amount of a deceased person’s assets. Those assets are referred to as the estate. Inheritance tax is paid by those who receive the money. Instead of being on the total amount of the estate inheritance tax is determined by each individual’s inheritance amount. in Finance & Loanwith estate-and-inheritance-tax!by 14 users