Should B.C.'s homeowner grant be income-tested? Some say yes
Should B.C.'s homeowner grant be income-tested? Some say yes
The homeowner grant applies to all homes valued at $2.15 million or less, covering 92 per cent of homes in B.C.
The homeowner grant applies to all homes valued at $2.15 million or less, covering 92 per cent of homes in B.C.
It’s an odd thing; the concept of the homeowner grant is that it encourages single family dwelling ownership. Start doing anything else with the land, and goodbye grant.
This does mean that rental properties don’t get the grant, which means home ownership is artificially deflated compared to renting (because those taxation costs are passed on to the renter).
We seem to have moved past the point where we’re encouraging single family home ownership though, and are now trying to get landholders in many places to provide ANY increased home availability.
So I guess the real question becomes: are we still trying to move people towards home ownership, or are we content with somehow forcing landholders to provide enough homes for all the people, even if that’s via exorbitant rents that prevent people from saving for land of their own?
You make a decent argument why we should probably alter the tax in regards to social reasons.
But politically I don't think even the seemingly popular NDP party will be willing to gamble on taking a hundreds of dollars out of home owners pockets on a election year.
I really don't know if there's a lot of low hanging fruit that NDP hasnt picked but certainly seems like there some real ripe ones.
You could instead view it as a tax on owning a home to not live in it, so it essentially penalizes wealthy people who can afford to own multiple properties...