Final Tax Return for a Deceased Person in Québec (2026 Guide)

Settling the taxes of someone who has died is one of the liquidator’s heaviest jobs, and in Québec it is doubled: the CRA and Revenu Québec each need their own returns, each issue their own clearance, and the Civil Code adds its own steps before anyone can be paid. Mistakes are costly, because a liquidator who distributes property too early can be held personally responsible for the deceased’s unpaid taxes. This guide walks through the deadlines, the returns to file, the tax rules that apply at death, the two clearance certificates and the liquidator’s duties, with a full worked example. It reflects the rules published by the CRA, Revenu Québec and the Civil Code of Québec as of November 9, 2026.

Which tax returns must be filed after a death in Québec?

Depending on the situation, the liquidator may have to file up to four kinds of returns:

The two agencies follow the same logic, but you file each set separately. Revenu Québec also states that when you complete more than one return for the year of death, you must mail them; they cannot be filed online.

What is the deadline for a deceased person’s final return?

The deadline depends on the month of death and, for the year before the death, on whether that return had already been filed.

For the year before death, the CRA rule is worded slightly differently: if the person dies on or before the filing due date of the prior-year return and had not filed it, that return is due six months after the date of death. A surviving spouse who lived with the deceased gets the same filing date for their own prior-year return, but must still pay any balance by April 30.

If the deceased or the spouse ran a business

According to the CRA, if the person who died, or their spouse or common-law partner who lived with them, was carrying on a business, the final return is due June 15 of the following year for a death from January 1 to December 15, and six months after the death for a death from December 16 to 31. The payment deadline does not move: any balance is still due April 30 (or six months after a November or December death). Revenu Québec also warns that its deadlines may vary when the deceased or spouse carried on a business; check its questionnaire for liquidators.

Payment, penalties and instalments

• The balance owing on the final return is due on the same date as the return, except as noted above for business income.
• The CRA’s late-filing penalty is 5% of the balance owing plus 1% per full month late, up to 12 months, plus interest. Filing on time avoids the penalty even if you cannot pay in full.
• No further instalments are payable after the date of death. Only instalments that were due and unpaid before death must be paid.
• In some cases you can defer part of the federal tax on rights or things and on the deemed disposition of capital property by providing security and filing form T2075. Interest still runs.

What are optional (separate) returns, and why file them?

Optional returns let certain income be taxed separately from the final return, each with its own personal tax credits and its own run up the tax brackets. That can reduce the total tax significantly. Federally there are three:

• Return for rights or things: amounts owed to the person at death that would have been income if received, such as salary or vacation pay earned but unpaid, or a dividend declared before death but not yet paid. It is due by the later of one year after death or 90 days after the notice of assessment for the final return, but any balance is payable on the final return’s payment date.
• Return for a partner or proprietor: business income for the period between the end of the business’s fiscal period and the date of death. Same dates as the final return.
• Return for income from a graduated rate estate: used when the deceased was a beneficiary of a graduated rate estate (for example, the estate of a spouse who died earlier) with a tax year ending in the year of death. Same dates as the final return.

Revenu Québec allows up to three separate returns in addition to the principal return, for the value of the deceased’s rights and property at death, for income from a testamentary trust that is a graduated rate estate, and for business income from a partnership or sole proprietorship. Its guide IN-117-V explains each one.

Deemed disposition at death: how capital property is taxed

Canada has no estate tax, but the tax system treats death as a sale. Immediately before death, the deceased is deemed to have disposed of all capital property at fair market value: shares, mutual funds, rental properties, cottages, business shares. The resulting capital gains go on Schedule 3 of the federal final return and on the corresponding schedule of the TP-1, and half of the net gain is currently taxable.

• Spousal rollover. When capital property goes to a surviving spouse or common-law partner, or to a qualifying spousal trust, it transfers at the deceased’s tax cost, so no gain is taxed until the spouse later sells it. The legal representative can elect, property by property, to transfer at fair market value instead, for example to use up the deceased’s capital losses.
• Principal residence. The gain on a home can be sheltered by designating it as the principal residence for the years it qualifies. The designation is made on the final return.
• Capital losses. Unlike in other years, net capital losses in the final return and the return for the year before death can be applied against other income, not only against capital gains.
• Sales after death by the estate are reported on the T3 and TP-646, not on the final return.

What happens to an RRSP or RRIF at death?

As a rule, the deceased is considered to have received, immediately before death, an amount equal to the fair market value of the unmatured RRSP, shown in box 34 of the T4RSP slip. That full amount is income on the final return. The same broad principle applies to a RRIF. On a large plan, this is usually the biggest tax item in the estate.

Two other points: if the plan’s value drops between death and final distribution, the representative can generally ask to deduct the decline on the final return, provided the final distribution occurs by the end of the year after death; if it grows, the increase is taxed to the beneficiary or the estate. And no one can contribute to the deceased’s RRSP after death, but the representative can contribute to the surviving spouse’s RRSP in the year of death or in the first 60 days after the end of that year and deduct it on the final return. Any balance outstanding under the Home Buyers’ Plan or Lifelong Learning Plan is included in income unless the spouse elects to take over the repayments.

Clearance certificates: TX19 and Revenu Québec’s MR-14.A-V

A clearance certificate confirms that all taxes owed by the deceased and the estate have been paid or secured. It is what protects the liquidator personally. Québec liquidators need two.

Do not send the TX19 with the returns, which delays their assessment. If new property is found after a certificate is issued, you need another certificate before distributing it. With Revenu Québec, choose the right type of distribution on the form (the deceased’s property, the estate’s post-death income, or both); changing it later requires a new request.

The liquidator’s obligations under the Civil Code of Québec

The tax steps sit inside the Civil Code’s liquidation process. Under article 776, liquidation means identifying and calling the successors, determining the contents of the estate, collecting the debts owed to it, paying its debts and legacies, and rendering account. The key steps:

1. Inventory. The liquidator must make an inventory (article 794). The closing of the inventory is published in the register of personal and movable real rights (RDPRM) and in a newspaper where the deceased lived (article 795). Only the unanimous consent of the heirs can dispense with it (article 799).
2. Heirs’ option. Each heir has six months from the opening of the succession to accept or renounce, extended so they have at least 60 days after the inventory closes (article 632). Heirs are generally not liable for the deceased’s debts beyond the value of the property they receive (article 625).
3. Paying debts. If the estate’s solvency is not obvious, the liquidator cannot pay debts or particular legacies until 60 days after the inventory notice is registered (article 810). If the property is insufficient, a payment proposal must be approved by the court (article 811). Taxes are among the debts.
4. Annual account. If liquidation lasts more than a year, the liquidator renders an annual account to the heirs and unpaid creditors (article 806).
5. Final account and delivery. Once known creditors and legatees are paid (article 819), the liquidator renders a final account; after it is accepted, the liquidator is discharged and delivers the property to the heirs, and a closing notice is published in the RDPRM (article 822).

In practice, the tax clearances fit between steps 1 and 5: once the inventory is done, send form MR-14.A-V to Revenu Québec; file the returns, obtain the assessments and pay or secure the balances; ask for the TX19; then, with both certificates in hand, render the final account and distribute.

Notifying the agencies and claiming benefits

• Register as liquidator with both agencies. The CRA needs the legal documents showing you are the legal representative. Revenu Québec asks for certain documents as soon as possible after the death, depending on whether there is one heir or several, and says registration can take up to 60 days.
• Report the date of death to Revenu Québec if the deceased received social benefits or credits through it, such as the solidarity tax credit, or paid support through it, to stop or adjust payments and avoid overpayments.
• Stop the deceased’s instalments. None are owed after the date of death.
• QPP death benefit. Retraite Québec pays a lump-sum death benefit of up to $2,500 under the Québec Pension Plan. It goes first to the person or charity that paid the funeral expenses if they apply with proof within 60 days of the death, otherwise to the heirs. Survivors’ and orphans’ pensions are separate claims. If the deceased contributed to both the CPP and the QPP, the contributions are combined, and Retraite Québec handles the claim when the person lived in Québec at death. For deaths on or after January 1, 2025, the CPP death benefit can include a $2,500 top-up for contributors who never received a CPP or QPP pension or disability benefit and leave no spouse eligible for a survivor’s pension.
• Tax on death benefits. The CPP or QPP death benefit is not reported on the final return. Retraite Québec states that the QPP death benefit is income of the estate, whatever name is on the cheque, so it goes on the estate’s T3 and TP-646; the CRA’s guidance also allows a beneficiary of the estate who ultimately receives it to report it. It does not qualify for the $10,000 exemption that applies to death benefits paid by an employer.

The estate’s returns: T3 and TP-646

Income earned after the date of death, such as interest, dividends, rent, or gains on assets sold by the estate, belongs to the estate, not to the final return. The estate files a T3 with the CRA and a TP-646-V with Revenu Québec. Each is due 90 days after the end of the estate’s tax year.

• A graduated rate estate (GRE) can choose its first tax year-end on any date up to one year after death. Revenu Québec notes that the succession’s taxation year generally ends on the anniversary of the death.
• In the year the estate is wound up, the tax year generally ends on the date of the final distribution.
• Income paid or payable to beneficiaries is generally taxed in their hands, with T3 and RL-16 slips; income kept in the estate is taxed in the estate.

Worked example: a death in March 2026

Pierre, a widower living in Montréal, died on March 10, 2026. His daughter is the liquidator under his will. He had not yet filed his 2025 returns. His two adult children inherit everything.

Deadlines for the liquidator:

• 2025 T1 and TP-1: the death occurred before the April 30, 2026 filing date and the returns were unfiled, so both are due September 10, 2026, six months after the death.
• 2026 final T1 and TP-1 (death between January and October): due April 30, 2027, with any balance payable the same day.
• Federal rights or things return: due by the later of March 10, 2027 or 90 days after the final return’s notice of assessment; the tax is still payable by April 30, 2027.
• Estate T3 and TP-646: if the estate’s first year ends March 9, 2027, they are due 90 days later, in early June 2027.
• Clearance certificates: file form MR-14.A-V once the inventory of assets and debts is drawn up (Revenu Québec wants it before property is distributed or the deceased’s debts are paid, apart from urgent expenses up to $12,000); file the TX19 once all federal notices of assessment are in and the balances are paid or secured. Distribute only after both certificates are issued.

Pierre’s 2026 final returns will show about $214,000 of income ($9,000 + $180,000 + $25,000), most of it from the RRIF, so a large part will be taxed at the top brackets. The rights or things return lets the $3,000 dividend use a fresh set of personal credits. Had Pierre been survived by a wife named as the RRIF’s beneficiary, the $180,000 could have rolled into her plan, and the portfolio could have passed to her at its $70,000 cost, leaving very little tax on the final returns.

The liquidator should keep enough cash in the estate to pay this tax before making any distribution. Advances to the heirs before the certificates are issued are made at her own risk.

Common mistakes liquidators make

• Distributing before the clearance certificates. This is the single most expensive mistake: the liquidator can end up paying the deceased’s tax personally.
• Filing only the federal return. Québec residents need a TP-1 as well, and Revenu Québec has its own certificate.
• Using the April 30 date for a November or December death. The deadline is six months after the death.
• Forgetting the prior-year return. A death early in the year often leaves the previous year unfiled, with a six-month deadline.
• Putting post-death income on the final return. Income after the date of death belongs on the T3 and TP-646.
• Reporting the QPP death benefit on the final return. Retraite Québec treats it as income of the estate (T3 and TP-646).
• Ignoring the RRIF or RRSP tax. When the beneficiary is an adult child, the plan passes to them in full but the tax stays with the estate.
• Skipping optional returns. They can save thousands in tax on rights or things and business income.
• Missing the principal residence designation or the spousal rollover elections, which must be made on the final return.
• Not keeping records of fair market values at death. Get statements and appraisals dated as close to the date of death as possible; they set the beneficiaries’ cost for the future.

How we can help

We prepare final federal and Québec returns, optional and separate returns, unfiled prior-year returns and the estate’s T3 and TP-646, and we assemble the TX19 and MR-14.A-V requests so the liquidator can distribute safely. A tax professional reviews every return. Personal returns start at $300 (personal tax returns); estate files are quoted after a first review of the documents. If returns were left unfiled for several years, our catch-up service and our guide to late and unfiled tax returns explain the way forward. See pricing or contact us with the date of death, the will and the last notices of assessment. For the regular yearly return, see our personal tax return guide for Québec, and for filing dates our tax deadline calendar.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• CRA – Filing and payment due dates (tax returns for someone who died)
• CRA – RRSP (tax returns for someone who died)
• CRA – Taxable capital gains on property, investments and belongings (someone who died)
• CRA – Death benefits (someone who died)
• CRA – Apply for a clearance certificate (TX19)
• Revenu Québec – Deadline for filing income tax returns (liquidators)
• Revenu Québec – Types of income tax returns to file (liquidators)
• Revenu Québec – Request a certificate authorizing the distribution of succession property
• Revenu Québec – Form MR-14.A-V, Notice Before Distribution of the Property of a Succession
• Revenu Québec – Send us information about the person acting as the liquidator
• Revenu Québec – Inform us of the date of death
• Revenu Québec – Guide to Filing the Income Tax Return of a Deceased Person (IN-117-V)
• Légis Québec – Civil Code of Québec, articles 625, 632, 776 to 822
• Retraite Québec – The death benefit (Québec Pension Plan)
• Government of Canada – CPP death benefit

Keep reading

• How to File Your Tax Return in Québec: 2026 Tax Year Guide
• Behind on Taxes? Filing Late or Unfiled Returns in Canada and Québec
• 2026–2027 Tax Deadlines for Québec Businesses and Individuals