| We all know how heavily taxed regular citizens are. Whether it be income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, flipping taxes, you name it. To add to this, there is one additional tax measure that may be coming to the British Columbia market – the expansion of the Property Transfer Tax to include the taxation of beneficial transfers. There is a strong possibility this expansion of PTT tax will soon be here, so it is best to plan for it now.
Some background – PTT is payable whenever legal title to property is transferred in BC. However, when the beneficial interest is transferred (such as a sale of shares of a company that owns real estate) there is no property transfer tax. To be clear – we are not saying we support this measure – it would certainly chill investment in the real estate sector and hurt an already weak land/development market. But we just want to bring it up as it is useful background for various tax planning strategies we employ on behalf of clients. If you ever have any questions about preserving your real estate wealth, please feel free to reach out. We look forward to connecting with you. |