Is it just me, or does the speculation and vacancy tax exemption process strike you as an affront?
Here I am, staring at a form that I am required to fill out to avoid a tax bill of thousands of dollars.
For what? For nothing.
This tax, an affront of its own, only applies to about 32,000 British Columbian homeowners, but 1.6 million British Columbian homeowners are required to endure a tedious process and invasion of privacy to prevent paying the tax.
The form is a lulu, requiring me to fill out a Declaration Code, an 11-character Letter ID, my social insurance number, email address, etc. etc.
It’s like being hacked by my own government. I’m afraid to think about what they’re going to do with my social insurance number and email address. I’m completely mystified, and not in a good way, by the Declaration Code and the Letter ID.
I feel like the net is closing around me, yet I’m guilty of nothing that requires a net.
What happens if I don’t fill out the stupid form? I get a tax bill, that’s what.
What’s really galling is that there’s no need for this play or pay enforcement. This lovely North Shore condo is my principal residence. There is no other. And I suspect the provincial government already knows that, or can find out easily without requiring me to fill out an invasive declaration every year.
As co-owner, my wife also has to fill out a separate declaration. That’s two. Come on!
Jordan Bateman, that champion of tax cuts and the elimination of red tape, is of course opposed to the declaration, not to mention the actual tax. He thinks it’s an elaborate plot to snag our email addresses so the government can shovel propaganda to long-suffering homeowners.
I’m not sure about that, but I’m also not sure why John Horgan and company need my email address. All they have to do is look at the end of this column. In fact, it’s hard to believe the provincial Big Brother data base doesn’t already have all my personal information. Anyone who breathes in B.C. gives out their email address every 15 minutes, but who knows? Maybe this is the one piece in the puzzle that will complete the picture for Biggie, and now the net can close.
Or maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe the government really does need a detailed personal declaration from all 1.6 million homeowners to identify the 32,000 poor unfortunate wretches that do have to pay this stupid tax.
You can tell how upset I am. It’s rare that I use the word “stupid” twice in the same column, and I’m not done yet.
Look, the B.C. Liberals didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory by allowing a few speculators to game the entire provincial economy, especially the housing market, for fun and profit. But the NDP has moved in with a regulatory hammer, nailing everyone who dares to own a property.
The point of this big brotherly exercise is to cool the already ice-cold real estate market and “encourage” owners to rent out properties that aren’t principal residences, but why are some areas exempt and other aren’t? I can buy a second home in Parksville and leave it empty, but not Nanaimo, 38.2 kilometres down the road? Has anyone really thought this thing through?
And who did they hire to figure out the declaration form? Torquemada?
I guess my main beef is this negative billing option/declaration. It’s in the time-honoured magazine tradition. If I don’t physically declare that I no longer want that subscription to Empty Homes Annual, I’ll end up paying for it anyway.
Let me declare the following: I am a good citizen because I believe it’s the right thing to be, not because the government holds a giant taxation hammer over my head.
But there’s a difference between being a good citizen and a compliant sheep. And I resent the government’s attempt to turn me and all my fellow home-owning good citizens into the latter, while cheerfully pretending we’re the former.
This declaration process threatens to be an annual affair. I hope that in January 2020, all we have to do is check the No Change box and get on with our lives. But why am I worried there will be a few new hoops for the sheep to leap? And why am I worried that, one by one, the exemption categories will be eliminated and someday soon, maybe not next year, I’ll be stuck paying the speculation and vacancy tax as the cost of being a B.C. homeowner.
Meanwhile, I’ve got until March 31 to consider the consequences of not filing the stupid declaration.
There. That’s three stupids.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. p.sullivan@breakthroughpr.com
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
