Real Estate Blog

Non-Resident Tax to Greatly Increase Homeownership Costs in Nova Scotia

We were informed this afternoon in a news release from the Nova Scotia Assocation of Realtors regarding the new tax rules that will significantly increase costs for home buyers who are not residents of Nova Scotia. 

The directly quoted news release from NSAR is included below:

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"Budget 2022/2023 – New taxes that impact your clients

This afternoon the Provincial Government released a budget that included newly created Deed Transfer Taxes and increased Property Taxes for out-of-province buyers and owners. NSAR has continually expressed concerns that the increased taxes will have unintended and negative consequences on Nova Scotia’s economy, tripling owners' taxes and causing a serious impact on construction and service industries, particularly in rural Nova Scotia.
Earlier this week, NSAR met with the Honourable Allan MacMaster, Minister of Finance, as well as senior staff in the Finance Department to once again share member and client concerns about the proposed taxes. Unfortunately, our advocacy on this issue was unsuccessful.

What does this mean for your clients?

Deed Transfer Tax: Effective April 1, 2022 the province will implement a Deed Transfer Tax of 5 per cent of the value of residential real property purchased by a non-resident of Nova Scotia. The tax will not apply to a transaction where the Agreement of Purchase and Sale was entered into prior to April 1, 2022. An exemption from the tax will be in place for non-resident purchasers who move to the province within 6 months of the closing date of the transaction.

Nova Scotia Non-Resident Property Tax: Effective for the 2022-23 fiscal year, the province will implement a Property Tax of $2.00 per $100 of assessed value on residential real property owned by a non-resident of Nova Scotia. The tax will not apply to residential properties that contain more than 3 units nor to residential properties that are leased to individual Nova Scotian residents for a period of at least 12 months. Where a property has multiple owners, an exemption from this tax is provided if 50 per cent or more of the owners are residents of Nova Scotia.

You can find out more information about these taxes on the Provincial Budget Website. "

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Reach out to a HaliPad Consultant to learn more about how this might affect the real estate market.