Inheritance tax
Also called: death tax, estate tax
Tax charged on what passes to others when someone dies.
Some countries tax the estate before it is distributed; others tax each recipient on what they receive. Some do neither. Thresholds range from generous to nearly non-existent, and the rules change with governments.
Because of that variation, this entry deliberately gives no numbers. Anything specific would be wrong for most readers and out of date for the rest.
What does travel between countries:
Thresholds exist, and most estates fall under them. The tax is discussed far more often than it is paid.
Spouses are usually treated differently from other recipients, often far more favourably.
Timing matters. Many countries treat gifts made well before death differently from those made shortly before, which means planning early has options that planning late does not.
Liquidity is the practical trap. If the tax is due before the estate can be distributed, someone must find the cash — and an estate that is mostly a house can force a rushed sale.
This is a genuine “check your own country” subject, and one of the few where paying a professional reliably earns its fee.
Words on this page
- Estate — Everything you own at the moment you die, before anything is distributed.
- Option — A contract giving the right to buy or sell something at a set price before a set date.
- Liquidity — How quickly something can be turned into spendable money without losing value.
- Expense ratio — The percentage of your money a fund charges each year, taken automatically whether it performs or not.
Related terms
Covered properly in Learn.
This term appears in the glossary of The Quiet Fortune, Volume III.