Eligibility for First Time Home Buyer's Exemption of Property Transfer Tax in British Columbia

I had a question very recently from a realtor regarding their client’s eligibility for the First Time Home Buyer’s exemption of Property Transfer Tax for their Burnaby condo purchase.

The purchaser has been living and working in Alberta the past few years so they thought they did not qualify for as they thought a condition was residency in BC.

The conditions to be met at time of application are:

• Each purchaser must be a Canadian Citizen/Permanent Resident or become such within year. (Application for refund must be made within 18 months)
• Each purchaser must have either resided continuously in British Columbia for at least one year immediately prior to registration or have filed income tax returns as a resident of British Columbia for 2 of the last 6 taxation years immediately prior to registration date.
• Each purchaser must not have owned an interest in a principal residence anywhere, ever.
• Must be principal residence
• Must not have previously obtained a First Time Home Buyer’s exemption or refund
  Fair market value must be less than $425,000 (proportionate exemption on less than $450,000)
• It is important also that the purchaser must live in the property as their principal residence for at least one full year after completing the purchase or the exemption may be reassessed.

In this situation; our client had only been in Alberta the last 3 years. He ordered copies of his Notices of Assessments for the years he was resident in BC, 2003 and 2004; and we will attach those to his Property Transfer Tax Return in support of claiming the Exemption.

More information at www.davidnotary.com or http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/documents_library/brochures/FirstTimeHomeBuyer.pdf