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
SEC Penalizes Deutsche Bank for Questionable Accounting Issues
Accounting mistakes can happen to anyone, whether you’re self-employed, have a small business with just a few employees, or you run a major corporation. However, even when mistakes happen, the consequences can be damaging. When those mistakes, or irregularities, involve large organizations like corporations, banks and financial institutions the consequences can be severe. Recently, the…
Activists, Unions Take Aim at Governor Brown’s Budget Grip
California Governor Jerry Brown has been known to rule the state’s budget with a tough grip. Not much has passed or been voted down without him having a hand in the decision. The governor has fought for tax hikes, put the kybosh on new programs that call for more spending and worked tirelessly on building…
Tax Fraud Getting More Advanced – Are You Prepared?
It used to be that tax fraud was fairly cut and dry. Essentially, it involved an individual or company who, for various reasons, tried to purposely fudge on their taxes, either by understating their income or by trying to completely skip out on filing a return. Those practices certainly still exists, despite the IRS’s constant…
Obama Administration Looking to Make Art Collectors pay
Are you a collector? You may have read that the Obama administration was looking to make art collectors pay more taxes. Just last week we discussed how investors could save a lot of money on taxes from selling expensive collectibles like art. Well now it appears that they are apparently looking to put a stop…