On July 25, 2016, then-premier Christy Clark announced a 15 per cent tax on the purchase of residential real estate by foreign buyers. It applied to all property transfers registered with the Land Title Office on or after Aug. 2 of that year.
Many sales contracts had been signed before the tax was announced, but could not be completed until after it came into force. It increased our costs by 15 per cent after we were already committed.
Whoever made this effective date rule had to know that pre-sale home buyers couldn’t register their purchases until after the deadline, but they just sat at their office and waited to collect tax from us.
They said the goal was to cool the real estate market and make it affordable for middle-class families — but the truth is that it was also a way to rob foreign buyers who entered into contracts before the provisions were announced or came into force.
NDP MLA David Eby, later attorney general, criticized the tax, saying “it unfairly singles out foreign people instead of foreign money.”
“It penalizes new immigrants who are working and living here, but don’t have citizenship yet,” Eby told CBC’s On the Coast.
“I fear we’re going to be back in six months fixing this problem.”
It has been six years. I am a permanent resident now. The government did not fix this problem.
Here is my situation:
1. I came to Canada from Taiwan with my family in December 2014, and applied to B.C.’s provincial nominee entrepreneur immigration program in March 2015.
2. My wife and I entered into a contract to buy a house in early April 2016, before the tax was announced.
3. I was accepted as a candidate for the nominee program in October 2016 and signed a performance agreement with the provincial government, stipulating conditions I must abide by to become confirmed as a nominee.
4. As part of those conditions, I took over my current small business on April 14, 2017, investing more than $300,000.
5. I was confirmed as a provincial nominee in December 2018, submitted my application for permanent residence status in February 2019, and got PR status on April 21, 2021.
From the moment we arrived in 2014, every penny I transferred here from Taiwan and every penny I made here was spent (and taxed) in B.C.
I agree that a responsible government must make policies to deal with the housing crisis. My only hope is that those policies would be fair.
In my case, implementing the foreign buyers tax after I signed a contract to buy the house, but before I could register the sale, led to the Finance Ministry wanting me to pay $240,000 (which interest brought to almost $300,000). They abused their power to rob foreign pre-sale home buyers who entered into their contracts before these provisions were announced or came into force.
These provisions were meant to let future foreign buyers be aware of this additional transfer tax before they make the decision to buy houses in B.C., not to penalize those foreign pre-sale house buyers (including new immigrants) who entered into their sales contract before these provisions were announced or came into force.
Is this justice in Canada?
Dear Premier, where is my justice?
Dear Mr. Eby, where is my justice?
Dear MLAs, where is my justice?
Dear judges, where is my justice?
Dear law-school professors, where is my justice?
Dear lawyers, where is my justice?
Dear B.C. residents, where is my justice?
Dear media, where is my justice?
I am turning 51 this year. I saved enough meet the requirements of B.C.’s entrepreneur program, and brought my families here to start a new life, only to have my life-savings and my two children’s education fund taken by the Finance Ministry just because we couldn’t register our unfinished house with the Land Title Office before Aug. 2, 2016.
I can’t accumulate enough CPP for retirement. All I rely on is the money I worked so hard to save in Taiwan — and it has been taken by the Finance Ministry.
I worry now. I have been overwhelmed and depressed for years because of it. I have been hiding at home after work. I don’t have another 25 years to save $300,000.
I am working seven days a week like a beaten dog just to barely pay all my bills, I can’t save money at all.
I reiterate again that I am not asking the B.C. government to abolish the foreign buyers tax. I am just humbly hoping that the premier, the ministers and the MLAs will amend its unfair provisions.
Those provisions were amended many times over the years. NDP MLAs are the majority now. They can make it right if they are willing to.
I can only hope that this public letter can awaken the conscience and moral courage of the policy-makers. I am overwhelmed and exhausted, mentally and physically.
Please help me, in any way, to get my savings back from the B.C. government.
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