Estate Freeze Calculator

Every year a growing business stays in your hands alone is another year of growth your estate will eventually be taxed on. A freeze locks in today's value and lets the rest grow somewhere else.

Reading This Tool

How To Use This Calculator

Enter today's share value, its original cost base, and how long the business has left to grow.

In a freeze, common shares are exchanged for fixed-value preferred shares, generally on a tax-deferred rollover, and new common shares carrying all future growth are issued to a family trust or the next generation. This shows exactly how much growth that shifts, and the terminal tax gain it avoids crystallizing all at once.

Your Inputs

Current Fair Market Value Of Shares $3,000,000

Original Adjusted Cost Base $100,000

Expected Annual Growth Rate 8.0%

Years Until Eventual Transition Or Death 20 yrs

Effective Personal Capital Gains Tax Rate 27.0%

Effective rate here means the personal tax rate applied to the taxable half of a capital gain, roughly 50% of the top marginal rate in most provinces.

What A Freeze Changes

Frozen Value (Your Preferred Shares)

Future Value At Transition, Unfrozen

Growth Shifted To The Next Generation

Terminal Capital Gain, Frozen vs. Unfrozen

Without A Freeze With A Freeze Today

Assumes a straightforward rollover freeze with no Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption applied on either side, and no subsequent refreeze if the business declines in value, a real freeze should generally include a mechanism to unwind if that happens. This models the mechanics only, actual implementation requires a lawyer and accountant working together on the share structure and valuation.

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