Ontario’s 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax, Explained Properly
Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax is 25% of the purchase price and applies province-wide. Here is who pays it, what it applies to, and how the exemptions and rebate actually work.
Tax and Ownership Rules
The federal tax and ownership rules that decide what a Canadian property actually costs to buy, hold and sell, quoted from the statutes and the Canada Revenue Agency with section numbers and dates.
Can a Foreign Buyer Purchase a Luxury Home in Toronto in 2026?
Three levels of government now stand between a non-Canadian and a Toronto house. Here is the full stack — the federal ban, Ontario’s 25% NRST and Toronto’s 10% MNRST — with the arithmetic.
Toronto Raised Its Luxury Land Transfer Tax Again: What Changed on 1 April 2026
On 1 April 2026 Toronto raised its municipal land transfer tax on every portion of price above $3 million. Here are the old and new bands side by side, and the dollar difference at each price point.
Land Transfer Tax on a Luxury Home in Toronto: The Full 2026 Numbers
The complete Ontario and Toronto land transfer tax tables as they stand after the 1 April 2026 increase, with combined totals worked out at every luxury price point.
Your MPAC Assessment and Your Real Value: Why They Are Nothing Alike
Your assessed value and your market value are different numbers built for different purposes. Here is what Current Value Assessment actually drives, including the vacant home tax, and when to care about it.
Short-term rentals and HST: the expensive surprise is on the sale, not the nightly rate
The Excise Tax Act excludes from residential complex status a building where all or substantially all arrangements are for periods under 60 days — and the exemption for selling a used residential complex then has nothing to attach to. Three different thresholds in three statutes, and the section 67.7 deduction denial that overrides the normal reassessment limits.
Collecting rent for an overseas owner: the 25% that comes out of your pocket
Section 215(6) makes a person who fails to withhold liable for the whole 25% of gross rent themselves, plus a 10% penalty and compound daily interest. The 2026 amendment relieved residential tenants but expressly not agents. The deadlines, the late-remitting scale, and why form NR6 shifts risk onto the property manager.
Renting out the home you used to live in is a deemed sale — and one CCA claim can undo the fix
Section 45(1) deems a disposition at fair market value when a home becomes a rental or a rental becomes a home. The 45(2) and 45(3) elections defer it, the four-year limit sits in section 54 rather than section 45, section 54.1 extends it only on strict employer-relocation conditions, and section 45(4) deems a 45(3) election never made if any CCA was claimed.
Bare trusts and T3 reporting: where it actually stands for property owners
The CRA stated on 5 March 2026 that it does not expect bare trusts to file for taxation years ending in 2025, and the legislation now matches: the old rule was repealed for years ending after 30 December 2024 and the new narrower rule applies only to years ending after 30 December 2026. What a bare trust is in a real estate context, and why the coming carve-outs do not cover investment property.
The Underused Housing Tax is gone from 2025 — and still fully enforceable for 2022 to 2024
New sections 1.1 and 6.1 of the Underused Housing Tax Act remove both the tax and the filing requirement for 2025 and later years. But the Act is not repealed until 1 January 2035, and Budget 2025 states that all requirements, penalties and interest continue to apply for 2022 to 2024. The penalty minimums, and the ones the CRA’s own hub page has not caught up with.