The province might be giving the proposed "Special" real estate tax aimed at owners of properties they don't live in.
This proposal was part of a University of British Columbia (UBC) study and is aimed at addressing affordability of homeownership by suggesting redistribution of taxes to residents. According to Vancouver Sun, the proposal suggests implementation of a special 1.5 percent tax on property owners with limited or no residential connection to the province. That surcharge on residential real estate could yield $90 million per year in Vancouver alone. This amount in turn would be dispersed as lump-sum payments to every resident Canadian who file taxes in the collecting region.
The proponents of the study are 10 business, economy and finance professors at the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University. The proposed "special tax" will identify overseas investors, or speculators, who own properties as investment vehicles but pay no income taxes to that area or region. Basically, the proposed tax would lessen speculation, making B.C. less inviting towards investors looking to park their cash in residential properties.
"What we are offering is the ability to tax a group that isn't subject to income tax," UBC's Thomas Davidoff said. "If you want to leave your place vacant or you want to park low-income-earning members of your household here while you earn money elsewhere, then you are going to have to contribute to taxes."
According to CKNW, Premier Christy Clark believes the proposal has advantages and would serve as the answer to the "empty neighborhood syndrome," a term described for properties owners have bought but don't live in. Clark says that the idea sounds good but the problem lies on the implementation, saying, "Other places that have done it have had a lot of problems. So, it's one of those things, it's a good idea; the execution is really hard, so that's why we're giving it a very hard look and it may take a little while to work it through."
