Real Estate Law Blog

Underused Housing Tax Filing Obligations

The filing deadline for the first year of the Federal Underused Housing Tax (“UHT”)^[1] is fast approaching. Any owner of residential property in Canada who is not explicitly defined as an “excluded owner” must file a return by April 30, 2023 for each residential property of the owner. The UHT is a 1% tax on the value of vacant or ...

The Province has announced that as part of its package of relief for businesses it will reduce school tax rates for commercial properties (Classes 4 – Major Industry, 5 – Light Industry and 6 – Business & Other) by 50% for the 2020 tax year.

The Property Assessment Appeal Board has announced that in conjunction with the Provincial extension of limitation periods, the ...

In the cases referred to as Vavilov or the Trilogy – Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 and Bell Canada v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 SCC 66 – the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) clarified the framework for judicial review of administrative decisions. In the Trilogy, the SCC has ostensibly simplified the law by redefining the ...

On November 27, 2018, the British Columbia provincial government enacted Bill 45, the Budget Measures Implementation (Speculation and Vacancy Tax) Act (the "Act"). Unless otherwise exempted, all owners of residential property in designated regions in British Columbia are required to pay the speculation and vacancy tax ("SVT") for the calendar year 2018 and beyond. The ...

The Province of British Columbia is taking steps to ensure that the applicable taxes are paid on assignments of pre-sale condominiums with the introduction of Bill 25 Real Estate Development Marketing Amendment Act, 2018. The goal of the legislation is to collect the applicable tax on such assignments and to generally discourage the assignment of such contracts and reduce ...

The British Columbia government has released further details about the Speculation Tax on residential property announced in the 2018 Provincial Budget (the highlights of which are discussed in our previous blog post). These details clarify the geographic areas the Speculation Tax will apply to, along with rates, exemptions, and credits that may be available to offset ...

On March 15, 2017, the BC Government issued Order In Council 152/17 (the “OIC”), which creates a retroactive exemption from the 15 percent Foreign Entity Tax (the "Tax") for foreign nationals applying for permanent residency under BC’s Provincial Nominee Program, and provides refunds for certain purchasers who have previously paid or are required to pay the Tax ...

The provincial government’s new 15 per cent tax on foreign purchasers of residential property is the talk of the town in Metro Vancouver.  While many local residents have spent the last several days debating about the likely effect of the tax, others are already facing the consequences as buyers respond to the tax by failing to complete on binding agreements of purchase and ...

In our blog post from July 25, 2016 we highlighted the provincial government's introduction (effective August 2, 2016) of the new 15% property transfer tax (the "Foreign Entity Tax") on foreign buyers of residential property in the Greater Vancouver Regional District ("Metro Vancouver").

The Foreign Entity Tax has been introduced by way of an amendment to the Property ...

The provincial government announced earlier today, July 25, 2016, that foreign buyers of residential real estate in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (excluding Tsawwassen First Nation lands) will be subject to an additional property transfer tax (The “Additional PTT”) of 15% of the fair market value of a foreign entity's proportionate share of property. For ...