Owners of Vancouver's most expensive homes pay very little tax, UBC study finds
A new study from the University of British Columbia has found owners of the most expensive properties in Vancouver are paying very little income tax.
Researchers found the top five per cent of homes as of 2018 had a median value of $3.7 million, but the median income tax paid by the homeowners was $15,800 – 0.42 per cent of their home’s value.
In contrast, owners of Vancouver homes with a median value of $984,000 – less than a quarter of the top tier – paid $12,500 in income tax, which is 1.37 per cent of their home’s value.
Study co-author Thomas Davidoff, an associate professor in UBC’s Sauder School of Business, called the findings “outrageous.”
“There are lots of people who pay a ton of income tax who own expensive homes, but there's too many people who are clearly affluent who don't contribute much to taxation in British Columbia and that's a failure of the progressivity of our taxes," said Davidoff.
He said it’s possible some owners are not paying as much income tax because they may have inherited the wealth, or they’ve brought money from overseas.
He suggests the city should implement a minimum income tax based on property value to level the playing field.
"What we've proposed is people have to pay an income tax of one per cent of their property value," Davidoff said.
"I think it's a pretty widely held belief that people with the greatest ability to pay should be those who pay the most taxes. There's people who disagree with that. There are people who think, ‘No, your ability to pay should be unrelated to how much tax you pay.' But generally in Canada, we seem to, based on income taxation, believe in progressive taxation.”
He hopes an equal tax for all will help fix what he describes as a weak relationship between income tax and property value in the city.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.