Hands Off Our Homes
HANDS OFF OUR HOMES – Please VOTE Sept 20, 2021
By now you’ve heard our federal debt alone is more than one trillion dollars. Every Canadian man, woman and child now owes more than $30,000 in federal-only debt, burdening current and future generations. No surprise then, government is desperately seeking new taxes.
A federal political party candidate slipped up recently, and admitted on video a plan to tax your principal residence. Jason Hickey (Liberal, New Brunswick) said: "But of course, anyone selling their primary residence, if you do make money on that, unfortunately you will have to pay tax on that. I wouldn't agree to that either but it's what we have to do."
This sparked a storm of denials, but a new principal residence tax is in the Liberal platform. Other political parties have also embraced new taxes, on homes, incomes and assets, without any plan to grow the economy. As former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, a “nation can’t tax its way to prosperity.
Whether they call it a home equity tax, a capital gains tax, a wealth redistribution or just a plain old envy tax, a new principal residence tax is still going to hurt homeowners and renters, because taxes are still costs. Rental home providers also pass those costs to tenants.
Maybe you’re still struggling to pay off a huge mortgage, or you’ve planned to use your home equity to retire on, gift your children for their starter home, or use the funds to offset future senior care costs. You’ve paid mortgage interest, property taxes, PST, GST, property transfer taxes and other costs on homes, plus more taxes on maintenance, and repairs, none of which were tax deductible. Your principal residence growth was one of the few remaining tax shelters one could bank on. No mention of whether home equity losses would attract a tax rebate of course.
Now, every Canadian must report sale of a principal residence on tax returns for the last several years. Why would that be if they didn’t plan to tax them? One party is also hinting at private land seizure if they deem it “unused”. Are we still living in Canada?
Previous governments said income taxes were only a “temporary” war measure. The BC provincial government said the carbon tax would stay “revenue neutral”. Federally, the carbon tax was supposed to be capped at $50 a tonne, but now it’s going up to $170 a tonne. You wonder why your groceries, gas and heating are so expensive and inflation is now 4.1%? Farmers pay carbon taxes to grow food, food truckers pay carbon taxes on fuel then charge it back to grocers, who duly pass it on to consumers.
We can’t fight every tax battle, but we did win the last time government floated the idea of a housing equity tax. We can’t stop now.
Will you help?