Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
It is different from province to province. Ontario and BC (IIRC) collect a signficant probate fee (which is really a disguised inheritance tax). Alberta is fortunate in this regard - presently, our maximum probate fee is $400.00.
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Meh, probate fee isn't THAT significant. In BC it's 0 up to $25,000, 0.6% from $25,000 to $50,000, and 1.4% over $50,000. Ontario is similar, slightly higher once you're over 50 grand. On a really big estate it could end up being a chunk of change, but not too painful.
In Canada while family strife is a thing, for sure, the bigger issue in my view is seeing a long-standing family business come crashing down as a result of liquidity problems. I.e., sudden huge capital gain liability on shares of the family corp that wasn't properly planned for, and not enough cash in the estate to pay it, which requires paying a dividend out of the corp to the estate, triggering a second stage of tax to the estate (and thus requiring a larger dividend); meanwhile the corp needs to sell business assets in order to have the cash to pay the dividend, thereby triggering a third stage of tax on that sale in the form of recapture, GST/HST, etc... pretty soon the tax bill is a quarter of the company's book value. Note to people: plan ahead.