If you are looking to Buy a Property in an area, of the Province of British Columbia, where Speculation Tax is payable, you need to know that you are not on the hook for an outstanding Bill where the Seller hasn't paid.

In a recent BC Real Estate Association Bulletin came good news for Buyers and their Real Estate Agents, in that they don't have to worry about including a clause in a Contract of Purchase and Sale that specifies that a Buyer won't be held liable for the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT).

Here's why:

• When a buyer purchases a residential property, they will either pay the Property Transfer Tax (PTT) or be exempted from the PTT because they took advantage of an exemption like the First Time Home Buyers' Exemption or Newly Built Homes Exemption. Payment of the PTT (or exemption) means you're eligible for an exemption of the SVT for the year of purchase.
• The SVT is levied on the person who owns the property on December 31 of the calendar year. That means if...

We've heard a lot about the Speculation Tax coming to parts of British Columbia, without know exactly what it is going to look like.

This week the BC Government finally tabled the new Tax, which has yet to be voted on.

The BC areas affected are -:

• municipalities within the Capital Regional District
• municipalities within the Metro Vancouver Regional District, excluding Bowen Island, the Village of Lions Bay and Electoral area A, but including UBC and the University Endowment Lands
• the City of Abbotsford
• the District of Mission
• the City of Chilliwack
• the City of Kelowna and the City of West Kelowna
• the City of Nanaimo and the District of Lantzville

All residential property owners in the designated taxable regions will have to complete an annual declaration to claim any relevant exemptions. Where there are multiple owners of a home, a declaration must be completed for each owner.

Further information on how to declare will...

While we understand that there is a problem with Affordable Housing in Kelowna and the Central Okanagan Valley and that more should be done to help those affected, a growing number of you are very concerned about the possible consequences of the proposed Speculation Tax by the BC Government.

To give ourselves any chance of being heard it is important that we pool our resources and have 'one voice'.

On April 23, 2018, the Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board (OMREB) joined a coalition of 15 other BC agencies in a campaign to scrap the speculation tax.

As you may not be sure how to support OMREB’s advocacy on the subject of the proposed speculation tax, you can do so by visiting scrapthespeculationtax.ca where you can learn more and send a letter to the BC government to register concerns about the proposed speculation tax.

As of Friday, May 11, the campaign has facilitated:

• 16,561 letters to the government, an increase of over 2000 letters to the...