British Colombia’s Property Transfer Tax Act (“PTTA”) currently taxes only registered transfers of realty. In other words, it essentially taxes transfers of legal ownership, but not transfers of beneficial ownership. Numerous BC governments have for years considered expanding the scope of the PTT to include transfers of beneficial ownership – without substantive action.

Recently, however, there has been word of possibly significant realty-related tax changes to be proposed in the upcoming provincial budget, which will be released tomorrow. An expansion of the PTT is not unthinkable, given that current Premier John Horgan put forth a bill himself in 2016 seeking to tax the disposition of a beneficial interest in land. Read More