Canada.

Canada has no inheritance tax, gift tax, or estate tax. Instead, the Income Tax Act treats death as a deemed disposition of capital property at fair market value, triggering capital gains in the year of death under section 70(5). Provincial probate fees apply at the estate level, with British Columbia (WESA), Ontario (SLRA), and Quebec (Code civil) each operating distinct procedural regimes.

Cross-border issues arise constantly — for Canadian residents holding US, UK, or Korean assets; for non-residents holding Canadian real property; and for binational families navigating the Canada–US tax treaty’s prorated unified credit under Article XXIX-B. The departure-tax regime under section 128.1 catches Canadian residents emigrating, while section 116 clearance applies to non-resident dispositions of taxable Canadian property.

The memoranda in this series address the recurring fact patterns in Canadian cross-border estate planning — including spousal rollovers, the principal residence exemption for foreign-situs homes, the lifetime capital gains exemption on QSBC shares, foreign-trust attribution under section 94, and the interaction between Canadian deemed disposition and foreign inheritance, estate, and capital-gains taxes.