Alberta Edition 2026

The land may be worth millions. The tax bill should never be a surprise.

What every Alberta farm family should know before the tax bill comes due.

Most farm families have never seen what the tax system will do to their land, equipment, grain, livestock and corporation on the day it changes hands. This book shows you, in plain language, before it happens.

Download the book (PDF, 74 pages)

Free. No sign up, no email address, no payment.

How Derik helps farm families

Derik advises Alberta farm families on succession, the lifetime exemption and executor matters, and prepares the farm’s personal and corporate tax returns and financial statements. Your lawyer drafts wills, share terms and corporate records. We prepare the tax elections and filings.

Call Derik, 825-977-7999

Not sure yet? The first call is a free 15 minutes, to see whether the practice is the right fit.

The twelve events, on a farm

The book is built on the 12Event Planning Model: twelve major tax events in a farming lifetime, each one setting up the next. Passing the farm to the next generation sits mainly in Events 8 and 9. An event number says where a step belongs, not when it happens.

Ten questions to ask before your next meeting

Do you know what each parcel cost, including its 1971 value and any 1994 election?
Has each parcel been tested in writing, for both the rollover and the lifetime exemption, including the farm income history if anyone works off the farm?
How much exemption room does each family member still have?
Have cash or investments built up inside your corporation, and has the purity test been run this year?
If both spouses died this year, how much tax would be owed, and where would the cash come from?
Who is your successor, and are they ready to hold authority, not just do the work?
Do your wills still match the plan, and will they survive the 36-month vesting deadline?
Are your enduring powers of attorney and personal directives current, and do your bank and corporation recognize them?
Have your children, and their spouses, heard the reasoning from you?
Who is your executor, and could they carry the job?

Unsure of three or more? Bring this page to a Discovery Meeting. Not sure yet? Start with a free 15-minute call: 825-977-7999.

From The Farm Tax Bible, page 55.

Inside

What the final tax bill really looks like, and why the second death is the main event
Where the true cost of your land hides, and how the lifetime exemption slips away
Rollovers, freezes, and the order that makes them work
Why equal is not fair, and why good plans stall
The executor year, and ten questions to ask before your next meeting
Wages for hired help and family, and the yearly paperwork

Four parts

Part One

The essentials

Part Two

Your land, and what comes with it

Part Three

Special situations

Part Four

Running the farm business

It closes with one family followed start to finish, ten questions to ask before your next meeting, a glossary of the words you will hear, and worksheets you can fill in.

Canada has no inheritance tax and no estate tax. It has something that can feel exactly the same.

It is drawn from the working reference used in this practice, a very large binder called the Farm Estate Planning Bible. The ideas are kept and most of the section numbers left out. Words you may hear often, such as crystallize, purify, recapture and rights or things, are explained in the glossary at the back.

Two commitments. Nothing in this book promises a result, because every family’s facts differ and the law changes. And where something cannot be known without your numbers, the book says so instead of guessing.

If a page raises a question about your own farm, write it in the margin and bring the book to a meeting. That is what it is for.

Bring your numbers. We will model the bill.

A Discovery Meeting is the simplest place to begin. You bring the basics of what you own and who is in the family. We make a first estimate of your final tax bill from your own facts, show which of the twelve events apply to you, and set out what a plan could look like.

The Discovery Meeting is a paid session, and the fee is confirmed with you when you book. There is no obligation to go further, and no promise of any particular result.

Call 825-977-7999 or email derik@taxontax.com

Please read this first

This book is general education about Canadian and Alberta farm tax and estate planning. It is not legal, tax, accounting or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts.

TaxOnTax Advisory Ltd. is a tax planning, accounting and executor advisory practice. Wills, trust deeds, articles, shareholder and co-ownership agreements, and other legal documents are prepared by your own lawyer.

Reviewed against the law and figures in force in October 2026. Tax law changes, and several figures in this book are indexed or revised every year. Dollar amounts and rates are stated for 2026 and must be confirmed before anyone relies on them. Examples are illustrations, not predictions, and nothing in this book promises a particular result for any family.

This book is written for farms held under ordinary Alberta land title. Farms on reserve land, on Métis Settlements and Hutterite colonies follow different rules, outlined in a note at the back of the book.