Toronto home occupancy declarations due by end of day Tuesday

A person walks by a row of houses in Toronto on Tuesday July 12, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Torontonians have until the end of the day to declare if their residential property was occupied in 2022.

The new Vacant Home Tax (VHT), which was first approved by Toronto City Council in 2021, was established with the goal of helping boost housing supply as the city faces an affordability crisis.

Homeowners can easily declare their home’s occupancy status by visiting the City of Toronto’s secure online portal. Those who do not have access to a computer can authorize someone to act on their behalf to make the online submission.

A property assessment roll number and a customer number is required to complete the declaration. This information can be found on the most recent property tax bill or on the declaration notices mailed out by the city in late 2022.

Everyone who owns a residential property is required to declare its occupancy status for the 2022 taxation year. The initial deadline to do so was set for Feb. 2, but was pushed back to the end of the month to give people time to complete their declaration. So far, close to 95 per cent of homeowners have submitted their VHT declaration, the city said in a Feb. 28 news release.

Once the declaration portal closes at the end of the day on Tuesday, the city will issue a VHT Notice of Assessment to those who declared their property vacant.

Property owners who did not submit a declaration of occupancy status and whose property has been deemed vacant will be sent a notice at the end of March showing the VHT amount owed. The calculated rate is one per cent of the property’s Current Value Assessment.

Residential property owners who receive this notice and disagree with it can file a notice of complaint through an online portal that is set to open in early April.

The new tax does not apply to homeowners who go to a vacation home for part of the year or work abroad. People who rent out their property are also exempt.