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Silly British (Columbian) Design: B.C. Speculation and Vacancy Tax
I’ve yet to start a Canadian equivalent to my “Silly British Designs” blog series. But there is no time like the present, especially since British Columbia just sent out the B.C. speculation and vacancy tax declaration…to everyone. No I’m serious, to every single property owner in the taxable region - 1.6 million people. This opt-out pattern is so absurdly ill-conceived that the declaration itself couldn’t hide the stupidity. I’ll just go ahead and quote two sentences that are nearly adjacent in the declaration form.
“The Speculation and Vacancy Tax is a new annual tax requiring all property owners in the taxable regions to complete a declaration."…[Insert two feel-good snippets about foreigners pricing locals out of the market.]
“The B.C. government expects over 99% of British Columbians will be exempt from this tax.”
This is not a blog post against the policy (though the policy is political drivel to be sure), this blog post is meant to highlight the epic stupidity and triumphant perfection of inconvenience with which the B.C. government can inflict on their populace. In fact, the government knows how shitty it is and freely expresses how shitty it is on the speculation tax pamphlet:
“YOU PROBABLY WON’T HAVE TO PAY IT :) BUT YOU DO HAVE TO REGISTER :(
And what is the penalty for not declaring it if you’re one of the million downsized retirees in BC who escaped the snowy, slushy, and generally terrible weather of the Northwest for the months of February and March and didn’t receive your declaration? Around a 0.5% of the value of their two-million dollar home (about $10,000 on average).
Here’s what gets me about this whole thing. The sales pitch is all about “Targeting foreign and domestic speculators who own homes in B.C. but don’t pay tax here.” But then they go out and institute the worst opt-out policy that penalizes anyone who doesn’t file. Meanwhile, the people most effected by the policy are the very “people who live and work in B.C.” that “deserve an affordable place to call home.”
But don’t take my word for it, here are examples of entire working class communities directly effected by the idiocracy that currently runs this government:
Of the estimated 32,000 homes the government is trying to target, 20,000 (or three quarters) of those homes are owned by British Columbians. And I imagine the vast majority of those stories are going to be family properties, vacation homes, etc. So, to summarize this nonsense, the government is drag-netting 1.6 million people in order to catch the 0.0075% of homes purchased by speculators. Could you imagine if we let fisherman employ this logic in the ocean? Or companies automatically opted you into features increasing the price of your subscription unless you opted-out? Or shady used car salesmen tacking on extra fees unless you…oh wait, there is a precedent.