Sell your business in Alberta

Most sales close 6 to 10 months after going to market, typically following up to a year of preparation. A buyer coming through the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program adds its own approval steps to that timeline. How long a sale takes

In a share sale of a qualifying small business corporation, each owner can exempt up to $1,275,000 of capital gains in 2026 under the lifetime capital gains exemption. Gains above that are taxed at a top combined federal and Alberta rate of 24 percent. Taxes when you sell

Alberta has no provincial sales tax, so an asset sale carries GST at 5 percent alone. When the buyer acquires substantially all of the business, a joint election on Form GST44 can remove the GST as well. Share sale or asset sale

No. Alberta charges a Land Titles registration fee instead: $50 plus $5 for each $5,000 of land value, which comes to $1,550 on a $1.5 million building. Keeping the real estate

Under section 5 of the Employment Standards Code, employment is deemed continuous when a business is sold, so notice and termination pay run from each employee’s original hire date. What happens to your employees

Yes. Under section 132 of the Workers’ Compensation Act, a buyer obtains a clearance from WCB Alberta before paying the price. Without it, the buyer is liable for the seller’s unpaid premiums up to the fair market value of what it bought.

Yes. The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program’s Rural Entrepreneur Stream lets a newcomer buy an established business in a community outside the Calgary and Edmonton metropolitan areas, with a support letter from that community. The buyer must acquire 100 percent of the business and invest at least $100,000.