The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has released a home equity calculator to show how much money is up for grabs from Canadians’ pockets..With the federal government proposing taxing sales of primary residence, the CTF created the home equity tax calculator as a tool for Canadians to gauge the additional expenses to each individual homeowner if this tax were to be implemented..When asked about concerns to buyers and sellers, Franco Terrazzano, federal director with the CTF, told the Western Standard: “Higher taxes won’t make homes less expensive, higher taxes make everything more expensive. We need to build more homes, not punish Canadians with higher taxes..“A home equity tax can increase the price of housing in a few ways,” he said. “First, sellers may just add on the tax to the sale price. Second, it could encourage people not to sell, and reduce the supply of housing on the market.”.The CTF home equity tax calculator uses three prominent home equity tax proposals to calculate how much it could cost the owner when selling their home. .For example, if an individual bought a Toronto home for $250,000 in 1980 and sold it for $1.2 million today they would pay between $51,750 and $190,000, depending on the home equity tax proposal. .There’s no home equity tax in Canada at present, but in 2016 changes to sales of primary residences began..It became mandatory to report the sale of a primary home to the Canada Revenue Agency, even though it’s tax-exempt..Both the Liberals and Conservatives promised not to impose home equity taxes, but the federal government funded a report that recently called for an annual tax on Canadian homeowners. .“Taxpayers should be worried that politicians will come after our homes to pay for their massive debts,”.said Terrazzano..“The feds are already sniffing around our homes. The government paid $250,000 to look at home taxes and in the last election the Liberals said they would send the taxman after you if you sold your home sooner than the government thinks you should..“If politicians want to stick up for homeowners and taxpayers, then they should remove the requirement to report the sale of our homes with the Canada Revenue Agency. If the tax bureaucrats aren’t going to tax the sale of our primary residence, then why do they want to know how much Canadians sold their home for?”.The CTF’s home equity tax calculator can be found here..Ewa Sudyk is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.esudyk@westernstandardonline.com
