Korea.

Korea (대한민국) operates a civil-law inheritance system rooted in the German BGB tradition. The 민법 (Civil Code) governs succession; the 상속세 및 증여세법 imposes inheritance tax at progressive rates up to 50% — among the highest in the world; and the 국제사법 (Private International Law Act) controls choice-of-law for cross-border estates.

Three features make Korean succession law structurally distinctive. 유류분 — the forced share — protects descendants and the surviving spouse against disinheritance. The 50% top tax rate, combined with valuation rules that bite hard on family-business shares, can deplete an estate substantially. And Korea has no estate-tax treaty with Canada, the United States, or most Western jurisdictions, leaving binational families exposed to genuine double taxation that must be planned around structurally rather than by treaty relief.

The memoranda in this series address the cross-border fact patterns that recur in Korean-Canadian and Korean-American estate planning and administration — with particular attention to the timing mismatch between Canada’s deemed disposition at death and Korea’s 상속세 on receipt, and to the absence of treaty coordination for either pair.