Empty Home Tax Information (Part 1)
Empty Home Tax Information (Part 2)
Juris Notary would like to talk about the Empty Home Tax that is being imposed at the municipal level that affects the homeowners in the City of Vancouver. The government has declared that there is a shortage of housing in Metro Vancouver and has pegged housing crisis as a priority in the current provincial government. The City of Vancouver needed a way to relieve pressure on the shortages of rental housing market. Thus, the City became the first municipality in BC to take an initiative and pass the Vacancy Tax By-Law 11674.
The properties that will be affected by the Empty Home Tax will be class 1 residential properties in the City of Vancouver that is not used a principal residence or rented at least 180 days in a calendar year.
The rate of the Empty Homes Tax is 1% of a property’s assessed taxable value.
You can look up assessed value of your property for free at www.bcassessment.ca.
For example, a $1 million dollar property will have to pay $10,000 each year that is subject to the tax. Given that the assessed value has been increasing, the amount of Empty Home Tax will most likely increase accordingly.
The Empty Home Tax has been in force since January 1, 2017 and the tax will be due starting this year.
The owners of all class 1 residential properties within the city limits of Vancouver is required to submit a property status declaration by the beginning of February of the next year. That means for the declaration of 2017, you have until the beginning of February 2018 to submit the declaration.
(The deadline for declaration submission was extended to March 5, 2018 just for this year, since it is the inaugural year. The declaration can be submitted online or in person.)
If the declaration is not submitted by the deadline, your property is deemed to be vacant or empty and the Empty Home Tax will be applied.
The declaration must be submitted even if it is your principal residence or is rented. Therefore, if you own a property in the City of Vancouver but have not submitted the declaration yet, you need to do so right away.
Part 2 will go into more details about how the city is planning to implement the tax and types of evidence that may be required by the City. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office at (778-379-8577) and speak to Paul Choi or any of our friendly staff.