Vacant Home Tax In Toronto!What Is it? Why You Should Care? Does It Affect You?

First things first, what is the vacant home tax? A new law has been passed in Toronto and Vancouver ONLY, at least for now, that any home which is not a principal residence or tenanted for more than 6 months of the year shall be subject to the vacant home tax. The tax amount will be 1% of the Current Value Assessment. How does it work? Well, all residential property owners in Toronto will be required to declare the occupancy status of their property(s) annually, even if they live there. If your property has been vacant for the previous year you will be charged the 1% tax. There are home exceptions…. For instance Death of a registered owner, if you have been doing repairs or renovations, the principal resident is in care, transfer of legal ownership, occupancy for full-time employment and also if it has been court ordered. The deadline to do your declaration was Feb 2 2023 for the previous calendar year however about 15% of homeowners were not aware of these new changes and have not made their declaration. If you are one of those 15% of homeowners that wasn’t aware or maybe life just got busy, they have extended the deadline to end of February. If you don’t submit your declaration, the city will assume that your property is vacant and you will be subject to the vacant home tax even if that may not be the case. Save yourself the headache and send in your declaration. Just keep in mind as of now this is only for City Of Toronto residents however there are other cities such as Halton & Peel which area also looking to implement something similar.