Province keeps homeowner tax credit threshold at $1.1-mill; more ineligible as home values rise
Posted March 25, 2015 5:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Something buried deep in the province’s latest budget could cost homeowners across Metro Vancouver when they pay their property taxes.
The province is keeping its threshold for those eligible for the homeowner tax credit at $1.1-million.
As assessments rise, which they have been doing consistently for the past few years, homeowners will notice their benefits being phased out, meaning they won’t get that credit worth roughly $600 every year.
Thomas Davidoff with the Sauder School of Business at UBC says the move is a smart one for the province.
“When you keep the tax credit where it is, by reducing the amount of credits paid out then there is more money to spend on other goods and you can lower the tax burden on renters. So, I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea to change the number.”
“That credit was probably designed to be at a very high price and I believe the number was even adjusted downward and so lots of people become slowly, as their house value rises, ineligible for the credit,” Davidoff adds.
This nugget was on page 58 of BC’s last budget.
Meantime, a new report shows the average home in Vancouver by the year 2030 will cost roughly $2 million.
