Wills and Power of Attorney lawyers keep in mind that there are various benefits to making charitable donations within one’s Will, but those benefits are maximized if the estate is a GRE . An estate can claim a donation tax credit in the year of the donation. Further, if the estate is a GRE, the estate can allocate the donation to any of the last two taxation years of the deceased. In other words, one can defer the donation until one’s death, but with proper tax advice and the assistance of a competent accountant, the charitable donation can be applied to one of the last two years of the deceased. This could be particularly important if a deceased owned at the time of death an RRSP or RIF, which is deemed to be collapsed at the time of death and the entire value of the RRSP or RIF is included in deceased’s income. Dale Streiman Law LLP Wills and Estate lawyers always insist our estate clients hire a competent accountant.
Important factors to take into account and yet another reason why as Estate lawyers, in even our most basic wills, we include a provision that the estate is to be treated as a graduated rate estate.
