How to inherit Canadian real estate

Nowadays, people in China don't taboo the topic of death as before, and more and more people arrange their own affairs when they are alive. In Canada, how will the government intervene in the management and distribution of the estate after death? Come with me to see how Canadian real estate is inherited.

(1) About wills

A will, as its name implies, is an inheritance. The habit left by China people is that a person will say a word or a thing to his relatives at the last moment of his life. Actually, this is an oral will. In Canada, unless there are special procedures and supervisors, oral wills cannot be recognized in many cases. A formal will is a more comprehensive, detailed and perfect written text with the help of a lawyer, which has legal effect.

In Canada, once a person dies, all assets in his name will be frozen. If this person has no will, then he will go through the intestate procedure-the court will appoint an executor to assist him in completing it. If there are relatives, the inheritance shall be divided equally according to law; The inheritance without relatives will be directly confiscated by the government and cannot be inherited by individuals or institutions that the deceased likes. The whole process of will execution will be time-consuming and labor-intensive, and even lead to the loss of inheritance. This is also why many people's wealth has been locked for several years, and how many bank personal accounts are still unclaimed.

(2) About the succession procedure

In the case of a will, it is not easy to deal with the inheritance. Statistics show that the full implementation of Canadian wills takes an average of 24 months! In some complex cases, such as the complex composition of property and beneficiaries, the handling of inheritance is even more protracted. Let's take a look at what processes need to be completed after the testator dies:

1. Find out the executor (usually specified in the will) to arrange to take over the estate affairs and supervise them all the time.

2. Arrange guardians for minor children.

3. Arrange the funeral (relatives or executors pay in advance).

4. List the testator's estate and debts.

5. Declare the last tax for the deceased and pay off the tax (all accounts without joint names and accounts without designated beneficiaries are regarded as sold), that is, you need to calculate the value-added tax according to the market price, together with your personal income tax in the current year, and calculate the income to pay taxes. How much is the amount? If you buy an investment property, the purchase price is 500,000 yuan, and the market value at the time of death is 6,543,800 yuan, with an appreciation of 500,000 yuan, and 50% of the appreciation is regarded as income, that is, 250,000 yuan. If the tax rate is 464. 1%, then the tax is about 654.38+065.438+0.6 million yuan. Your family or executor must help you pay this tax before the ownership of the property is thawed.

6. Find creditors and pay off all debts (including housing loans, credit cards, corporate business debts, etc.). ) for the deceased.

7. Inform all beneficiaries to go to the court together and announce the will together.

8. Go to court to pay probate fees. Canada is different from America. At present, there is no inheritance tax, but there are inheritance display fees in Canada, which vary from province to province. The current rate in BC Province is 65438+ 0.4% of the total estate (more than 50000).

9. unfreeze the property with the proof of payment of the paid estate appraisal fee and move the property to the name of the person subjected to execution. In the meantime, if anyone objects, there will be inheritance litigation, and then there will be some testamentary wars. There are countless examples of this. In our previous article, we quoted a case. The court refused to implement the distribution of property according to the will, and used the judge's discretion to distribute the estate in a way that was reasonable.

10. After the formalities are completed, the inheritance will be distributed.

BC Province, the new content of the latest will/inheritance/inheritance law

* Documents without witnesses and signatures may be considered as valid wills or even electronic documents (so it is more important to keep your computer password safe). Of course, this situation requires the final judgment of the court. The new law gives the court greater power to interpret and ultimately decide whether a document is a valid will.

* The new Wills/Succession Law also gives the court additional power to correct mistakes in wills.

* In the old law, the will made before marriage will be abolished, but after March 365438+2004, the will made before marriage will still be valid. Therefore, many lawyers advise the parties to re-examine their previous wills after marriage to see if they still meet their own wishes.

* Now the beneficiary of the will can be the witness of the will. And 16 or more can make a will.

* Disposal of the intestate's estate-according to the old law, his estate was distributed according to the degree of blood relationship, from spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, brothers and sisters and so on. At present, the distribution methods are: spouse or children, parents and their descendants, grandparents and their descendants.

BC Province's 20 14 new law is more humane and gives testators and their families more rights. But it also increases a lot of uncertainty and human subjectivity. Some people even joked that the beneficiaries of the new law are actually lawyers, because there are too many vague boundaries to be defined and served by legal persons. Therefore, the testator needs more protection to carry out his will to distribute property.