To overcome the computational complexity in making optimized rate-distortion coding decisions (due to the calculation of actual rate) we propose a rate estimation scheme based on the Maximum Likelihood Parameter Estimation (MLPE) method. We derive separate rate estimation expressions for sending: the significance map (SM) and the absolute values and the signs of nonzero code words (R~sm , Rnz av _~ and Rnz s , and respectively). For this derivation we have assumed a uniform quantization scheme with (extended) dead zone which is the most practiced coding scenario for image and video coding schemes today.