[cperciva]

unoccupancy

How do you propose to measure that? If someone commutes to a work camp outside Fort Mac and is only physically present in Vancouver for two weeks each month, do they pay the tax? What if someone spends 4 months every winter in Florida? How about someone who gets hit by a truck and spends six months in a hospital? Or an elderly couple who move into a care home because the husband has dementia, but want to keep the house they lived in for 50 years because the wife (who is still in good health) might move back there after the husband dies?

[mahyarm]

I think it's to prevent the unoccupied house bank account. You could make an exemption for your official registered home address.

That way if you own more than one house, the unoccupancy tax creates an incentive to put the locked up supply on the rental market, but would sidestep the complexity you just stated.

[icebraining]

You could make an exemption for your official registered home address.

How does that work against foreign investors? How can you prevent them from having an official registered home address in both countries?

[mahyarm]

That is a residency problem that immigration and canadian income tax has systems to deal with that. And if they somehow get around all of those controls, it would only apply to one house, so it would limit the financial scope of it.

[rdmcfee]

There is already some process available to measure this as Canada has tax deductions available specific to your "primary residence". CRA definitely has a way of auditing this. Sharing that information with a provincial level organization may not be possible, though.

[delazeur]

I think "occupancy" is pretty much a solved problem for purposes of taxation. In the U.S., for example, there are settled rules about which state gets your income taxes if you live or work in multiple states.

A simple solution to the problem at hand would be to let everyone designate any one residence as their primary residence taxed at a lower rate, with any additional property they own being taxed at a higher "secondary/unoccupied residence" rate unless they can prove it is being rented out.

[cperciva]

Residency is a solved problem for income taxes. But that's a completely different issue from occupying a particular residence; for example, an international student may for tax purposes be a resident of his country of nationality despite not setting foot in it all year.

[kazinator]

Vancouver measures it somehow. There is the Home Owner Grant and the criteria are are laid out here:

http://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/are-you-eligib...