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by goatsi 3487 days ago
It's funny that you think that they pay taxes.

>An unusually high number of Vancouver homeowners living in multi-million dollar neighbourhoods but reporting poverty-level incomes is a red flag that needs immediate government action, says NDP MLA David Eby.

>“The focus should be quite straightforward: are you paying your worldwide taxes inside British Columbia, or not?” Eby, who represents Vancouver-Point Grey, told reporters during a July 15 press conference.

>“If you’re not you should have to pay extra in order to pay for the public services that make this real estate so valuable: the environmental controls, the policing, the court system, the schools and the healthcare.”

http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2016/07/15/number-of-...

>Documents obtained by Eby also show 29 of those homeowners have also been able to take out a mortgage. “There’s a waitress that bought a $2.3 million property. And there was a casino dealer and a cashier who bought a $1.2 million property as well. Students, homemakers and waitresses, by definition, have very low or no incomes. Is this why MacKenzie Heights and other neighbourhoods throughout the Lower Mainland are reporting incredibly low incomes, despite real estate values being so high? Are the people purchasing these $1 million homes reporting poverty level incomes for tax purposes?”

http://www.news1130.com/2016/09/27/homemakers-students-own-1...

3 comments

> It's funny that you think

Please don't be snarky on HN. "It's funny that you think X" can be shortened to "Not X".

It still seems like a property tax assessment on the house, which doesn't take into consideration the owners tax bracket, Would benefit the community the local governments?
Property tax on residences isn't they only place municipalities get revenue, they also get taxes from commercial (shops & companies) property. If the foreign owners never move into the house and don't rent[0] it there is no additional revenue in the form of purchasing things or working at an employer in the city.

[0]https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-province/20141127/281...

I said that if we are making legislative changes anyway (i.e. adding in anti-foreign buyer laws), why not just fix the underlying problem, sans-xenophobia, by adding or increasing property taxes?

If people aren't paying a sufficient amount in taxes now, I suggest adding land value taxes.