100 Queen Central condos . Overseas buyers are taxed legally. The BC Court of Appeal upheld an earlier ruling that the “overseas buyers’ house transfer tax” levied by BC on foreign buyers was legal, not discriminatory.Please Visit: 100 Queen Central condos to Get Your VVIP Registration Today!
On June 29th, the appeal of Chinese citizen Jane Li was unanimously rejected by three judges, Susan Griffin, Peter Voith and Barbara Fisher.
Li Jing’s class action puts forward three key reasons, including that the foreign buyer tax violates the Constitution and the Citizenship Act because it does not comply with Canada’s free trade obligations; second, it is discriminatory under the Charter of Freedom and Rights. especially against Chinese citizens.
However, Fisher decided that British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Gregory Bowden made the right decision in 2019.
First of all, the BC provincial government has extensive and important power in terms of land rights. Secondly, the use of foreign capital to buy British Columbia residential property is not in line with the normal category of cross-border merchandise trade. Finally, Li Jing has no evidence to show that taxes are distinguished directly or indirectly according to citizenship or nationality.
Fisher believes that the previous ruling is reasonable because it is based on the fact that the tax applies to all foreigners and its main purpose is to help achieve the affordability of housing in BC.
On October 25, 2019, Bowden ruled: “the view that foreigners have contributed significantly to the rise in house prices in Greater Wen is neither a stereotype nor a continuation of racist policies in the past.” Experts agree that the inflow of foreign capital has a significant impact on the rise in housing prices.
Li Jing believes that Asians, especially Chinese, are discriminated against more than people in other countries. Mr Bowden did not consider the evidence he initially submitted, some of which came from a report by Henry Yu, a professor at the University of British Columbia, who argued that the 20 per cent tax now imposed on foreign buyers was similar to the government’s racist policies on Asians in the past.
Fisher pointed out that the historical part of Yu Quanyi’s report was unnecessary and that his arguments lacked reference to the original data. Fisher thinks Bowden should include Yu Quanyi’s report, but it won’t make any difference.
Regardless of historical mistakes, today’s Asian-Americans in BC are also plagued by high housing prices, Fisher said.
It turns out that foreign money was one of the factors contributing to the extraordinary boom in the Dawen property market between 2013 and 2017, although the vast majority of that money came from China.
The capital of BC began collecting data in most urban areas of BC before it imposed an overseas buyer tax in August 2016. Bowden said: “the results of the first full month of data collection show that 9.7% of residential transactions in Dawen area involve foreigners. This means that the transaction value is 885393373 yuan, compared with 10.9% in Vancouver, 17.7% in Benna and 18.2% in Richmond.
In 2013, Li Jing came to Canada, completed a master’s degree in public administration from the University of California, and then went to British Columbia. On July 13, 2016, she bought a property in Lanli with a house transfer tax of 559000 yuan plus 27995 yuan. Since Li Jing is neither a permanent resident nor a Canadian citizen, she has to pay an extra 83850 yuan in overseas buyer tax.