21 February 2018
“We are facing very strong expectations that we’ll do everything in our first budget,” – James noted. “Our main goal is fairness. We want fairness for those people who live and work here, who pay their taxes here”.
According to James, new rules should restrain the prices increase, which is one the main problems for residents and businesses who are having hard times now trying to recruit workers amid such a high cost of living.
This fall, a new speculator tax will take effect. It will affect foreign and domestic investors who don’t pay income tax in British Columbia. Starting with only 0.5% of the property’s value this year, it will later go up to 2%. Meanwhile, this tax will not apply to primary residencies and homes leased as long-term rentals.
“The province’s housing market is not a stock market. It should be used only as a source of safe and secure homes,” – James said. “That’s the reason we’ll crack down on speculators damaging our market.”
The new levy will affect also the so-called “satellite families”. It’s a Chinese term for the families with a breadwinner living in the home country and the children and spouse benefitting from educational and employment opportunities in another country.
In addition to it, the foreign buyers’ tax will go further than Vancouver, affecting Victoria and other parts of the province. Another change is raising property transfer tax for the province’s most expensive properties (more than $3 million) from 3% to 5%.
James says flippers of pre-sale condos will also have to pay taxes. The developers will be obliged to gather ownership data on the selling and re-selling of contracts in new units, redirecting the information to tax authorities.
Moreover, unclear ownership records will have more transparency, as now we don’t even know who owns almost half of Vancouver’s most expensive homes. The province will collect more data on beneficial property ownership in tax forms, and this information will become public and shared with tax authorities and law enforcement agencies.