While the majority of Canadians think that taxes on capital gains are due immediately when a person passes away, but the CEO of a digital estate planning platform says that is not the case.
“A survey of over 3,000 Canadians showed that most people don’t know how we pay taxes on properties or any other assets when we pass away,” Erin Bury, the CEO and co-founder of Willful, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg.
“It showed that the majority of people think that you pay capital gains at the time the person passes away, when in reality when I inherit something, there’s no inheritance tax in Canada. By the time it gets to me, as the beneficiary, the taxes have already been paid.”
Bury explained that, in the eyes of the government, the assets are deemed to be sold on the date of the person’s death. In the instance that there is an amount owing, she said “the estate still has to pay capital gains on those assets.”
“For example, if they receive a cottage and they want to keep it in the family, the estate still has to pay capital gains on those assets because, in the eyes of the government, they’ve been sold on the date that you passed away,” Bury said.
Because of that, she highlighted the importance of having plans in place, such as a will or life insurance policies.
“I’ve heard of families taking out life insurance policies and the proceeds of those policies would actually go towards paying the gains on any investment of cottages so that their family members aren’t scrambling to come up with that money themselves,” Bury said.
When that is not the case, she highlighted that sometimes taxes, property costs or mortgages can cause the sale of the asset.
“For many passing on property they’re assuming that their heirs would have to sell or liquidate that property in order to pay off the mortgage or to pay any capital gains or both because the mortgage sadly doesn’t disappear when you pass away, it stays with the property,” Bury said.
While Bury says that oftentimes, all debts are paid by the estate itself, the mortgage usually stays with the property. For that reason, some may sell to avoid the mortgage, or for other reasons.
The post How capital gains are taxed on properties and assets in Canada after death appeared first on Bloomberg.
