Apply capital gains tax to all properties

The Speculation Tax has faced fierce criticism, mainly from those out-of-province property owners who feel they’ve been unfairly targeted.

To help cool the real estate market, I suggest the Capital Gains Tax be applied to the sale of every residential, strata and farmland properties, regardless of principal owner status. However, if the principal owner files a federal income tax return proving they are a Canadian citizen (or landed immigrant) with a transparent declaration of income and assets (domestic and foreign), the principal owner would be entitled to a complete rebate of the Capital Gains Tax that was collected at the time of sale.

Implementing this would provide the principal owner or investor with the choice of either filing a tax return and receiving their rebate or not disclosing the origins of their capital, waiving the rebate and allowing Revenue Canada to keep the tax.

The “everyone pays” approach would avoid singlingout certain groups or imposing an ill-defined speculation tax while still achieving the same result. By removing the incentive for real estate speculators to place a “housewife” or a “student” as the principal owner in an attempt to dodge any applicable taxes, this would hopefully cool the market and level the playing field for those who have been disadvantaged by the fact their income is earned and taxed exclusively in Canada.

Ken Moffatt, Richmond