(February 28 – 16:00 ET) Yes you can beat taxes at death. In the past, assets bequeathed to charity in a will qualified for a tax credit. Designation of a charity as a beneficiary upon the collapse of an RRSP, RRIF or insurance at death didn’t.
As a result, estates were often stuck with tax bills. Monday’s budget equalizes tax treatment of donations and the designation of a charity as a beneficiary of the proceeds of an RRSP, RRIF and life insurance upon death. The change in treatment affects the estates of individuals who died after 1998.
Also getting better tax treatment are those who donate shares obtained through a stock option plans. Employees exercising stock options are allowed to deduct part of the capital gains — a third as of Monday — from taxable income. But the same deduction was not possible with shares donated from a stock option plan. Now it is.
-IE Staff