Demystifying Toronto’s Proposed Land Transfer Tax
Diana Hart – OMNI News
The cry of opposition to Toronto’s proposed land transfer tax has found a home online in a new website by the Toronto Real Estate Board, which helps Torontonians calculate how much they’d have to pay under the tax and learn how to get their voices heard by contacting Mayor David Miller, city councilors and newspapers.
Von Palmer, the board’s director of government relations, says they created the website, www.nohomebuyingtax.com, after learning people were confused by how much this new tax would actually cost them. The website allows you to type in your home’s purchase price and find what you would need to pay under a municipal land transfer tax.
The realtors’ website is just one aspect of the board’s attempts to crush the tax. Their organization voiced their concerns, alongside multiple city groups and residents, during a June 25 city council meeting.
The land transfer tax would double the amount of taxes Toronto residents pay when buying a home. The tax would be similar to the provincial land transfer tax, which varies depending on your home’s cost. If the city approves the tax, Toronto would have Canada’s highest land transfer tax.
Palmer says the public needs to learn what the tax means before the July city council vote so that they can take action.
“The site is about creating awareness. If you don’t agree with what the city is doing, if that annoys you, then you need to make the city officials aware of it,” he says, adding if the Toronto tax goes through, it could set a precedent for similar taxes in other cities. The city has the power to create this tax under the retooled City of Toronto Act.
Despite widespread public opposition, the tax sailed through its first test with Toronto’s executive council unanimously approving the proposal.
Miller says he’d understand residents opposing the tax if the money wasn’t funding important things, but this isn’t the case as the money will go towards services Toronto desperately needs, like fixing its roads. The city would earn an estimated $350 million from the land transfer tax and a new car registration fee. City council is struggling to balance its budget after learning Toronto would be $575 million short in 2008.
Palmer says the proposed tax isn’t the right way to get the city out of debt as it would hurt Toronto homeowners.
“People are being asked to pay a backbreaking tax. We understand about paying off the shortfall, but if that is the concern, then they should tax everyone, not just people with the dream of home ownership,” he says.
He says over 1,000 emails have already been sent to city councilors and that his group will keep working to stop the law from becoming a reality.
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