Tax for Life Events and Estates in Canada
Marriage, kids, retirement, gifts, inheritance and the final return.
Life events change your tax picture faster than any raise. Becoming common-law changes your benefits, a new child adds credits and benefits, retiring changes which income splitting is allowed, and a death triggers a final return and often a large deemed sale of assets.
This hub collects the guides that walk through each event in the order the CRA sees it: what changes, what to file, and what deadlines apply. Every rule links to the CRA page that sets it, and worked examples use clearly labelled illustration amounts so you can see the effect before it happens.
If you are handling an estate, the CRA forms hub has the line-by-line guides for the returns; the Retirement estate hub covers wills, beneficiaries and probate.
What this hub helps you decide:
- What changes on my return when I marry or become common-law?
- How is income taxed when I retire?
- What tax is due when someone dies, and who files?
- Are gifts to family taxed or attributed back to me?
Updated November 2026 · 2 guides by Andrew
Start here
New to taxes? Read the overview first: How Canadian Taxes Actually Work — A Plain-English Guide.
All Life Events & Estates guides
Retirement Income Tax Planning for Canadians
How Canadian retirement income is taxed, from RRIF withdrawals and pension splitting to the choices that change what you keep from CPP and OAS.
Major Life Events & Their Tax Implications in Canada
Weddings, births, job changes, moves, separations, and deaths all change a tax return. This guide covers what to file.