Capital gains, taxes on properties and assets in Canada according to an expert

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.”