Calculator · Ontario
What would probate cost?
Ontario charges Estate Administration Tax on the value of the estate a court is asked to administer — not on everything you own. Enter your assets, mark the ones that pass outside the estate, and watch the two numbers separate.
Probate-calculator inputs and results
Estimated Estate Administration Tax
$0 Payable by the estate to the Minister of Finance, as a deposit when applying for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate TrusteeThis is an estimate, not advice and not a quote. It uses published 2026 figures and simplifies heavily. Nothing you enter leaves your browser — there is no server, no account, and nothing is stored or sent. Your actual position depends on how each asset is titled, what your documents say, and rules that change every year. Confirm anything that matters with a lawyer and an accountant.
How the tax is calculated
The formula, in full.
For deaths where an estate certificate is applied for on or after 1 January 2020, Ontario charges nothing on the first $50,000 and $15 for each $1,000, or part thereof, above that. The “or part thereof” matters: the amount rounds up to the next full thousand, so an estate of $200,001 is taxed as though it were $201,000.
| Probated estate | Estate Administration Tax | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $0 | 0.00% |
| $250,000 | $3,000 | 1.20% |
| $500,000 | $6,750 | 1.35% |
| $1,000,000 | $14,250 | 1.43% |
| $2,000,000 | $29,250 | 1.46% |
What usually passes outside probate
Assets held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship transfer to the surviving owner by operation of law. Registered plans and insurance policies with a living named beneficiary may pay directly to that person. Property validly held in a trust may also fall outside the estate. Ownership, beneficiary wording, resulting-trust rules and the governing documents can change the result, so a lawyer should confirm what belongs in the Estate Administration Tax calculation.
Why bypassing probate is not automatically the right move
Adding an adult child as a joint owner can trigger an immediate capital gain, expose the asset to that child's creditors and matrimonial claims, and invite a dispute after death about whether the survivorship was intended as a gift or held in trust for the estate. A named beneficiary overrides your will entirely, which is exactly the problem when the designation is decades old. Saving 1.5% is rarely worth creating any of these.
What this tool leaves out. Legal fees, accounting fees, estate trustee compensation, appraisals, and the cost of selling assets. These amounts depend on the estate, the work performed and applicable law. Estate Administration Tax is simply the item this calculator can estimate from a published formula.
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Thirty minutes, no charge, no product pitch. Bring whatever you have — a will, a policy, a shoebox of paper, or nothing at all. You will leave knowing what is missing and what it takes to fix.
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