also called estate tax · death duty · succession tax
Tax charged on the estate or the inheritance passed on when someone dies.
This is tax on what gets passed on when someone dies, charged either on the estate before it is shared out or on what each person inherits. Do not confuse it with a wealth tax, which bites every year on what you own while alive; this one lands once, at death. Which country gets to charge it can depend on where you legally belong, not just where you were living.
You spent years abroad and assumed your old country had let go of you. Then a parent dies, and because you never properly shed your domicile there, that country claims inheritance tax on assets you thought had moved on with you.
Domicile, not just residence, can decide which country taxes your estate, catching people who thought they'd left.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These tax what you own rather than what you earn.
Capital gains tax hits the profit when you sell an asset, a wealth tax is an annual charge on the total value of your assets, and inheritance tax falls on an estate when someone dies.
An exit tax is charged by some countries when you stop being resident or renounce citizenship, often treating your assets as if sold on the way out.
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