Friday, March 9, 2018 / by Ruth Ballantyne
Ruth Meets with Prime Minister Harper
Last Month as part of my duties as President Elect for the Brampton Real Estate Board we went off to Ottawa to Lobby our Local MP's. To help stimulate the economy we proposed extending the Home-buyers RSP programme to include all buyers not just first time buyers. We asked that the Government consider opening this plan to all homeowners to help them take advantage of the fantastic interest rates and enable them to use their RSP as part of their down payment. It may also allow those who are at threat of losing their homes to use this money without tax loses to stay in their current home or move down to a more manageable one. Last year the Canadian Real Estate Association was successful in Lobbing the Government to have them increase the RSP limit from $20,000 to $25,000 for homeowners.
We also urged the current government to change the Capital Gains Tax law to allow Small Real Estate Investors to sell their present property and move up to a large property without paying capital gains tax as long as the money was reinvested in another property.
We also visited our MPP's in May to relay our dissatisfaction with the harmonized Gst. This tax will add an additional (approx) $2000 to a purchase of a new home in closing cost as all services will be subjected to the full 13% instead of the current 5%. Also the purchase of a new home will be affected. The government has a sliding scale where lower homes up to $400,000 would be exempt then a portion between $400,000 and $500,000 would have to pay a portion of the tax and those buying a new home over $500,000 would have to pay the full wack of 13%. This means that homes over $500,000 c0uld be paying an additional $40,000 plus dollars in tax.
We also lobbied to stop the Mandatory Energy Audit. This would have meant that each home would have had to have an Green Energy Audit when sold. This would have caused many major headaches for Homeowners trying to sell their home. Luckily we were successful in having the bill amended to allow the Buyer to Opt out of the Audit.
We also urged the current government to change the Capital Gains Tax law to allow Small Real Estate Investors to sell their present property and move up to a large property without paying capital gains tax as long as the money was reinvested in another property.
We also visited our MPP's in May to relay our dissatisfaction with the harmonized Gst. This tax will add an additional (approx) $2000 to a purchase of a new home in closing cost as all services will be subjected to the full 13% instead of the current 5%. Also the purchase of a new home will be affected. The government has a sliding scale where lower homes up to $400,000 would be exempt then a portion between $400,000 and $500,000 would have to pay a portion of the tax and those buying a new home over $500,000 would have to pay the full wack of 13%. This means that homes over $500,000 c0uld be paying an additional $40,000 plus dollars in tax.
We also lobbied to stop the Mandatory Energy Audit. This would have meant that each home would have had to have an Green Energy Audit when sold. This would have caused many major headaches for Homeowners trying to sell their home. Luckily we were successful in having the bill amended to allow the Buyer to Opt out of the Audit.
- President Elect for Brampton Real Estate Board Lobbys Government
