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What does death cost in tax, in Ontario?
An honest estimate of the tax bill at death for an Ontario estate: registered savings, deemed disposition, and probate, with every assumption on the page.
When a Canadian dies, the tax bill does not arrive as one number. It arrives in pieces: registered savings counted as income all at once, investments treated as if they were sold the day before, and in Ontario, an estate administration tax on the value passing through the estate. Most families have never seen their pieces added up. This calculator adds them up, in the open, with every assumption printed below.
Do not include your principal residence in the real estate fields. A principal residence is generally exempt from capital gains tax, and that exemption is one of the simplifications explained in the methodology.
The pieces, added up
| Tax on RRSP and RRIF counted as income | |
| Capital gain, non registered investments | |
| Capital gain, investment real estate | |
| Capital gain, private company shares | |
| Tax on capital gains (50 percent included, at your rate) | |
| Tax on CPP death benefit, if included | |
| Estimated income tax at death | |
| Ontario estate administration tax (on passing through the estate) | |
| Estimated total tax at death |
Read this as a planning landmark, not a bill. Three levers move it a great deal in real life, and none of them are in this calculator: a rollover to a spouse or partner defers most of it to the second death, the lifetime capital gains exemption (1.25 million dollars for qualifying shares in 2025) can shelter some or all of the gain on private company shares, and charitable donations at death create credits that offset tax. The conversation is about which levers your family actually has, and whether the estate holds enough liquid assets to pay the bill that remains without a forced sale.
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Methodology and assumptions
Deemed disposition. Under section 70(5) of the Income Tax Act, capital property is treated as sold at fair market value immediately before death. The gain on each asset entered here is market value minus cost base (adjusted cost base, or ACB). A negative result is treated as zero: capital losses have their own rules on a final return and are not netted here.
Capital gains inclusion. 50 percent of a capital gain is taxable. The proposed increase to 66.67 percent was cancelled in 2025 before it took effect, so the inclusion rate used here is 50 percent, and the tax on gains is gain, times 50 percent, times the marginal rate you entered.
Registered savings. The fair market value of an RRSP or RRIF at death is included in income on the final return in full, at the same marginal rate. The default rate, 53.53 percent, is the top combined federal and Ontario marginal rate on ordinary income for 2025.
Ontario estate administration tax (EAT). Charged on the value of assets passing through the estate under an estate certificate: 0.5 percent (5 dollars per 1,000) on the first 50,000 dollars, and 1.5 percent (15 dollars per 1,000) on the value above 50,000 dollars. The base used here is the market values you entered plus your other estate assets entry. Registered accounts and insurance with named beneficiaries, and assets held jointly with right of survivorship, generally pass outside the estate and would be excluded in a real filing.
What is not modelled, stated plainly: graduated tax brackets (one blended marginal rate is applied to everything, which overstates the bill for smaller estates and is why the rate field is yours to lower); a spousal or partner rollover, which defers the tax to the second death and is the most common real world outcome for a first death; the lifetime capital gains exemption of 1.25 million dollars on qualifying small business shares (2025); charitable donation credits; the principal residence exemption; alternative minimum tax; United States estate tax exposure for anyone holding US assets or with US citizenship; and any debts of the estate. Figures are educational estimates for Ontario in 2025, not a tax filing and not financial advice. An accountant should model any real estate before decisions are made.
Sources: Income Tax Act sections 70(5) and 60(l); Canada Revenue Agency guidance on what happens to registered plans at death and on the capital gains inclusion rate for 2025; Ontario Estate Administration Tax Act rates as published by the Government of Ontario; combined federal and Ontario marginal rates for 2025 as published in standard Canadian tax rate tables.
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