Lawyers, notaries need to follow rules for new property transfer tax to work: public policy prof
Posted July 26, 2016 6:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The change of direction by the Christy Clark government on the property transfer tax might not make much of an impact, come election time 10 months from now. That’s coming from a public policy professor who doesn’t believe this issue will be as prominent as the HST was.
Related Articles:
- Foreign buyer tax not enough to send housing market into tailspin: economist
- Will a property tax on foreign buyers work?
Rhys Kesselman with SFU admits he was a bit surprised by the 15 per cent tax but says in a sense, the provincial government is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, “which is respond to the public mood, even between elections, and adjust course.”
“Surely, it is a political calculation,” says Kesselman. “Their proposal goes quite against what they said was their view on the whole issue earlier, which is ‘It’s a free market. It should be a free market. Let’s not worry.'”
For the plan to work, he believes a heavy onus needs to be put on the agents who do the conveyancing of properties, like lawyers and notaries, “to see and record documentation of the buyers — that they are, indeed, citizens or permanent residents.”
Kesselman also thinks for the policy to be truly effective, the feds would have to end the immigrant investor program which is still operating in Quebec.
“That apparently has been a substantial source of… people moving to or simply buying properties in British Columbia and the Lower Mainland.”
He notes immigrant investors get permanent residence status, which exempts them from the new tax.
Kessselman is pushing for big penalties for anyone caught breaking the new rules.
