Do I have to pay tax on an inheritance I receive?

All four schools treat unlawful gain as something to be got rid of rather than enjoyed, and all four hold that an heir who has no idea how the deceased earned his money takes it lawfully — that much the Kuwaiti Encyclopaedia records as ijma‘. Where they differ is what the heirs must do when the tainted amount is known, which is exactly the Canadian case, because a bank statement shows it to the cent. The Hanafi school puts it as the better course and turns on whether the money is identifiable; the Shafi’i school has the heir extract the unlawful portion by his own best estimate; the Maliki position, in Ibn Rushd al-Jadd’s words, is that inheritance does not make unlawful money wholesome at all; Ahmad’s reported rule turns on how large the fund is.

All four Sunni schools researched and sourced. Reviewed 2026-09-01. Full positions, evidence and sources — Interest money in the estate — what must the heirs do?.