Non Resident Executor for Canadian Estate

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ESAR
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Mar 03, 2019 9:56 am

Non Resident Executor for Canadian Estate

Post by ESAR »

I am a non-resident of Canada for tax purposes. My widowed mother’s (Canadian citizen and a resident of Ontario) last Will has designated me as the executor and beneficiary of her estate. I was told that “If a person acting as an executor of a Canadian estate or trust is a non-resident of Canada for tax purposes, any trust which is administered by the non-resident will likely be a non-resident trust and may be taxed differently”.

I assume this means my mother’s estate will be considered a non-resident trust from CRA perspective and taxed differently than if the executor is a Canadian resident for tax purposes. Unfortunately my mother does not have any other immediate family in Canada and does not want to name any other individual (friends of family) as an Executor.

Her assets in the estate will be the condo she lives in Toronto (approx. $600K) in value and bank accounts (approx. $50K – joint accounts with me). Condo she lives is her primary residence. A friend of mine mentioned that my mother could change the Executor to a corporate trustee or a lawyer. Is this the right way to go about to avoid tax issues or are there better ways to handle this since her estate asset will be her primary residence (bank accounts will not go through probate). After her passing away I plan to keep the condo as a rental unit.
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