Foreign Real Estate Buyers in Vancouver Facing New Tax
It’s no secret that many wealthy individuals own multiple homes, including vacation homes in foreign countries. In an effort to capitalize on this popular trend amongst the wealthy, many countries and/or cities have created new taxes aimed specifically at wealthy real estate buyers from foreign countries. Among the latest locations to enact a new tax on wealth property buyers is Vancouver, BC in Canada.
According to recent reports, the housing market has seen a huge shopping spree lately in the area as many wealthy foreign buyers, especially from China, have been snatching up homes at a fast pace. In fact, foreign buyers spent more than a billion dollars on homes and property in British Columbia between June 10 and July 14 of this year alone. With the increasing demand for property in BC, housing prices have soared almost 30 percent in the last year, which has left many local buyers unable to compete for these homes.
Therefore, in an effort to keep things fair, the British Columbian government has issued a new 15 percent tax, which will apply, to all “foreign nationals or foreign-controlled corporations” purchasing property in the metropolitan Vancouver area. BC is not the first place to issue such a tax. Australia and Singapore both recently raised the tax on foreign real estate buyers as well. The BC government said that anyone who attempts to avoid the new tax could face fines in the six figures and up to two years behind bars.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/26/wealthy-overseas-buyers-to-face-new-real-estate-tax-in-vancouver.html
How Three Important Life Decisions Will Affect Your Retirement
How Three Important Life Decisions Will Affect Your Retirement How close are you to retirement? Is it just around the corner or is it still years away? Regardless of how you answer that question, planning for retirement is something that everyone should do. And waiting till you’re 55-years-old isn’t a good idea. It’s best to…
President’s Tax Plan Changes Back at Square One
Taxes, taxes, taxes! It was arguably the number one issue during the recent presidential election and President Trump made it very clear that he planned to make some major changes to our country’s tax code. With the republican-led House and Senate in place, it seemed like it would just be a matter of time…
Tax Policy Center Claims Trump Child Care Plan Favors the Rich
Although most of President Trump’s policies have greatly divided the country, one policy that everyone can agree upon is lowering the cost of childcare. However, what they don’t agree on is how to make that happen. So far, his proposals have been well received by the right and not so much by the left.…
Making the Most of Corporate Tax Reform
Although nothing major has happened yet, rest assured that corporate tax reform is on the way. The Trump administration has made big promises and at some point they are coming. So far, the president has proposed reducing the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, while republican leaders in Congress have proposed…