BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax

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Common questions about this calculation

• Why is the answer lower than assessed value × the rate?+

  Because of the credit. A BC resident who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident gets a non-refundable credit of up to $4,000 for 2026. It is subtracted after the tax is worked out on the full assessed value. Most quick calculations stop at value × rate, and so overstate a resident owner's bill by up to that amount.
• Is $400,000 a threshold I can sit below?+

  No — and it is the most common misreading of this tax. The tax is charged on the full assessed value from the first dollar. $4,000 simply happens to be 1% of $400,000. So a sole resident owner's bill lands at zero there. Above it you pay 1% of the whole value and then subtract the credit — not 1% of the amount above $400,000.
• Do two owners get two credits?+

  They get one credit between them, split by their shares. The maximum is prorated by percentage interest in the property, so two spouses at 50/50 receive half each and the total against the property is still $4,000. Putting a second name on title does not double it. A quarter-owner receives a quarter.
• What happens if I forget to declare?+

  You are assessed at the maximum rate on your full share, and you lose the credit as well, because the credit requires a declaration on file. Any exemption you would have qualified for goes the same way. Recovering it means filing an objection rather than simply correcting the return, which is why the second figure on this page is usually several times the first.
• Which value do I enter — the assessment or the market price?+

  The BC Assessment value. Assessments are set as of July 1 the previous year and often trail the market, so using a current market price will generally overstate the tax. Your assessment notice arrives each January, and the value is also searchable on bcassessment.ca.
• Does this cover Vancouver's Empty Homes Tax?+

  Yes — tick "It's in the City of Vancouver" and it is added. The two are separate taxes that stack rather than replace each other. The City charges 3% of assessed value on top of the provincial tax. That takes a vacant Vancouver home to 4% for a resident owner in 2026, and 6% for a foreign owner. Only the City itself levies it. Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey and the North Shore do not — though the provincial tax still reaches all of them.

  Go deeper›

  Three differences worth holding onto. First, timing. Vancouver's declaration came due February 3 for the 2025 reference year, with payment April 16 — roughly two months and three months ahead of the provincial dates. Every Vancouver homeowner declares, and a property with no declaration on file is deemed vacant. Second, who is charged. The City asks for one declaration per property rather than one per owner, so its tax sits on the whole property rather than being split by share of title, and this page applies it to the full assessed value whatever share you enter. Third, the credit. That $4,000 only ever comes off the provincial side. Exemptions overlap heavily but are not identical, so a home exempt provincially is usually — not automatically — exempt municipally. You may also see the municipal tax called the Vacancy Tax; it is the same thing.

Related

• · The Speculation and Vacancy Tax, explained in full
• · Property Transfer Tax — the one-time tax at purchase
• · Rental returns — where this tax lands in a rental’s carrying costs
• · Buying from outside Canada
• · Every BC tax fact with its primary source