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Originally Posted by lowside67

Pretty much none of that is correct.

First of all, if mom and dad are both on title to their home, and dad dies first, the effect is basically that his name just drops off and it becomes 100% mom's. This has no tax consequence whatsoever.

Second of all, if mom continues living in that house until the day she passes away, there is also no capital gain to be paid on the house because it was her principal residence until the day she died.

Presuming she leaves the house (or proceeds) in the will to kids, the estate will pay a probate tax on the value of the house which will be deducted from what can be left to the kids - this is approximately 1.4% in BC. It makes no difference if the house is sold and cash left to the kids, or the house is left to the kids directly; the value of the house or the value of the cash proceeds are the same and therefore the probate taxes to be paid are the same.

Estate planning is a complicated topic and frankly there are some very powerful tools to help minimize taxation, but they are very specific in how they are used (particularly together) and I would be highly suspect of a) some guy on the internet posting or b) generic webpages that describe strategies that may or may not work.

The best thing you can do is talk to somebody. You can start with your accountant, but they can often have a very large range in their abilities and experience they can offer on out of the box solutions. If you work with a full service investment advisor, they can probably also connect you with some resources.

-Mark

Anyone have any recommendations on who to talk to about this matter? Our family has been in talks about this scenario as well and our accountant isn't skilled in this field...