VICTORIA — B.C. is considering refunding the foreign buyer tax to some buyers, says the finance minister.
Mike de Jong said Wednesday the refund idea is one of several reforms under his consideration as part of changes to the six-month-old 15 per cent foreign buyer tax on real estate sales in Metro Vancouver. It comes after Premier Christy Clark announced last week exemptions for foreigners with work permits, as part of B.C.’s response to immigration orders by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The rebate under consideration appears to apply to those people who paid the new foreign buyer property transfer tax on a home, but then shortly afterwards obtained Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status that would have originally exempted them from that tax.
“It’s one of the things that has been presented that we’re looking at, in terms of someone who has made a purchase and then in a very short period of time meets the criteria and acquires the status whereby they wouldn’t have had to pay the tax,” de Jong said in an interview Wednesday.
