Take Advantage of the Property Tax Deferment Program

If you live in British Columbia, Alberta, or Ontario, you may have heard about the property tax deferment program offered by the provincial and municipal government. The Property Tax Deferment program (hereafter referred to as the PTD) is a great low-interest program which helps a certain type of home-owner deal with their property taxes. Keep in mind that this is a totally government funded program: the taxes that you would normally pay to the municipal government (the city) is paid for instead by the provincial government. The property taxes owing then accrues until a certain point.

Why defer?

Let’s be honest. Owning property is not cheap. There are many hidden costs to home ownership such as heating, electricity, gas, water, and maintenance on possibly hundreds of things that can go wrong. Knowing this, the provincial government provides a way to help specific homeowners, namely, those that are older and those with children, deal with the costs of home ownership. It’s a great way to help increase your cashflow, and based on how much you pay for property taxes, you could be savings hundreds per month!

BC program (Who is it for?)

This program is designed for people in 2 categories:

1. 55 and older, surviving spouse, or disabled
2. Families with children

The goal is the program is to make the cost of house ownership more manageable for these 2 types of people. The requirements of each of them, however, are a little different:

55 and older, surviving spouse, or disabled (Regular program)

This program requires the following conditions on the person to be met:

1. The person who owes the house must be a Canadian or Permanent resident
2. They must be 55 or older
3. Be a surviving spouse
4. A designated person with disability, as defined by the government
5. Lived in BC for minimum 1 year

Additionally, the property must meet the following requirements:

1. Be your principle residence
2. Have at least 25% equity, based on the property’s assessed value
3. No outstanding taxes owing on the home

Sounds simple enough, right? That’s the idea! Essentially, most people who are over 55, and own a piece of property, can qualify!

Families with Children

This program requires the following conditions on the person to be met:

1. Be a Canadian or Permanent resident
2. Lived in BC for more than a year
3. Financially supporting your child under 18, or your child of any age who is attending school

And of course, there are the property requirements as well:

1. Be your principle residence
2. At least 15% equity, based on the property’s assessed value
3. No outstanding taxes owing on the home

Alberta Program

The Alberta property tax deferment program is similar to BC, in that the property owner needs to have 25% equity, home insurance, and no outstanding taxes owing.

The one big difference is that instead of 55 and up, you need to be 65 and up. There is no program for families with children.

Ontario Program

While Ontario does have a property tax deferment program, we won’t be talking too much about it due to the fact that the property needs to be non-municipal, which typically means farmland.

How does it work?

It’s extremely simple! Instead of paying your property taxes, visit the government website here:

https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/defer-your-taxes.aspx

Choose the program, and begin going through it to make sure that you qualify. For the regular program, visit this link:

https://forms.gov.bc.ca/taxes/property-tax-regular-deferment-eligibility/

And for the families with children program, visit this link:

https://forms.gov.bc.ca/taxes/property-tax-families-with-children-deferment-program-eligibility/

For Alberta’s program visit the link here:

https://www.alberta.ca/seniors-property-tax-deferral-program.aspx

You’ll be taken through the steps, and if you do qualify, you’ll be prompted to download a form which you need to fill out. The form is very simple as well! Just make sure you have your basic info and information for the assessment handy.

Afterwards, make sure you do it every year, as the deferral is not automatic!

You still owe the taxes and need to pay it back at some point

One last, but very important detail: This is a property tax deferment. Which means you don’t have to pay it right now, but at some point in the future, you will need to pay back the property tax owing This usually happens during 2 scenarios:

1. You sell your home
2. You pass away and the home is passed on to the next generation

When either of these 2 situations occur, the taxes owing on the property will be payable immediately, so make sure you plan ahead!