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Gondaliya CPA

Foreign Buyer Tax and Holding Compliance

Tax Accountant for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate in Ontario and Across Canada

Most of what a foreign buyer is told about Canadian property tax concerns the rent and the eventual sale. The two charges that actually land first are neither of those. Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax is 25%, it has applied to residential purchases anywhere in the province since 25 October 2022, and it is collected through the land transfer tax system on the day the deal closes rather than assessed on a return months afterwards. A purchase in the City of Toronto that closed on or after 1 January 2025 also carries that city’s own Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax of 10%, stacked on top of the provincial charge. Neither is an income tax, neither waits for a filing, and neither can be deferred by anything anybody lodges later, which is why the figure has to be known and funded before the closing date instead of discovered at it. The holding years are quieter than most buyers expect, and quieter than they were: the federal Underused Housing Tax has been eliminated for 2025 and subsequent calendar years, so there is no annual UHT return to prepare now. What remains is a catch-up question for 2022, 2023 and 2024, because the relief does not reach those three years and their penalties and interest are still live. We quantify what the purchase actually owed, close the open years, and get the holding structure written down before a sale makes it permanent — with AFFORDABLE flat fees.

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AFFORDABLE Foreign Investor Tax Accountant

The thing we correct most often on a first call is the belief that Ontario’s foreign buyer charge is a tax on income or on gains. It is not. The Non-Resident Speculation Tax sits inside the land transfer tax system, it is calculated on the transfer itself, and it is paid on closing by whoever registers that transfer, which in practice means your real estate lawyer remits it out of trust funds. Nothing about it behaves like a return. There is no spring deadline to plan around, no instalment schedule, nothing to carry forward and no loss that can be set against it. Either the money is in the lawyer’s account on the closing date or the deal does not close. That makes it a treasury question before it is a tax question, and it is answerable in an afternoon if somebody asks early enough.

The owners we act for run from one investor with a single pre-construction condominium assignment to a family group holding six properties through a company registered abroad. What differs between them is not the rate. The provincial charge is the same 25% whether the property is a downtown condominium or a detached house two hundred kilometres north of it, because the October 2022 change removed the old regional boundary altogether. What differs is how title is held, and that decides what gets filed each year and what happens on the way out. Three questions settle almost every file of this kind: what was owed at closing, which of the 2022 to 2024 Underused Housing Tax years are still open, and whether the way the property is held still suits the exit you have in mind.

You own the property. We will take the closing figure, the open years and the structure.

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Accounting That Understands How a Foreign Investor in Canadian Real Estate Actually Works

No other Canadian tax file front-loads its cost quite like this one. The largest single charge a foreign buyer pays arrives on the closing date, before a single return has been filed, and it is collected by a provincial ministry rather than by the Canada Revenue Agency. Advice written for resident investors starts at the wrong end of the timeline and will not tell you what has to be funded before the keys change hands.

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Closing Day Is the Expensive One

Ontario’s 25% charge is settled when the transfer registers, not on a return. It cannot be deferred, paid by instalment or netted against anything else, so it is a treasury item with a fixed date on it.

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Toronto Charges Again on Top

A City of Toronto purchase closing on or after 1 January 2025 carries a further 10% municipal non-resident charge. Two authorities, two calculations, one closing date, and the municipal one is the newer and the more often missed.

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The Holding Year Just Got Quieter

The federal Underused Housing Tax is eliminated for 2025 and subsequent calendar years. There is no annual UHT return to prepare now, and anyone still selling you one for this year is working from a page nobody updated.

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Three Years Stay Open Behind You

The 2022, 2023 and 2024 UHT years are untouched by that relief, which is not retroactive. An owner who never filed them still has penalties and interest running against three years that are otherwise closed.

Stay Compliant and Minimize Your Foreign Investor Tax

On an inbound property file, keeping the cost down is mostly a matter of sequence. What can still be influenced is influenced before closing; what cannot is funded on time so that it does not grow. Everything after that is record keeping, and what satisfies a reviewer a decade later is the same bundle that establishes what the property cost you on the day you bought it.

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What the Acquisition File Has to Hold

Three things decide this file years after the deal is done. The agreement of purchase and sale records who was buying, on what date and in what capacity, which is the fact every charge described here is measured against. The statement of adjustments and the rest of the closing package record what was actually paid on the day, including the land transfer tax and the Non-Resident Speculation Tax your lawyer remitted, and they are the only evidence of those amounts you will ever hold. The funding trail records where the purchase money came from, which matters because a transfer registered in one name and funded from another account raises a question nobody can answer from memory. Which of those closing costs belongs in the property’s cost base and which does not is a determination we make on your own documents and write down, rather than a rule that can be stated in advance. Section 230 of the Income Tax Act holds the records for six years, and where a required return was never filed, subsection 152(7) permits an assessment to be raised using nothing more than the material the Agency happens to hold already.

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What a Non-Resident Owner Is Actually Charged

The charges divide cleanly into the ones that arrive on closing and the ones that arrive afterwards. Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax, usually written NRST, is 25%, and since 25 October 2022 it has applied across the entire province. It reached that rate in stages — 15% when it was introduced in 2017 and 20% earlier in 2022 — so where you bought before October 2022 we establish from your own documents which rate was in force rather than assuming today’s. It is a land transfer charge payable on closing and not an income tax, which is why it is administered by the Ontario Ministry of Finance and remitted through your lawyer instead of filed with the Canada Revenue Agency. A purchase in the City of Toronto that closed on or after 1 January 2025 carries the city’s own Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax of 10% on top of it. A rebate exists in defined circumstances, and exemptions exist too; we confirm the current conditions against Ontario’s own rules before anyone relies on them, because this is the one area where the secondary sources openly disagree with each other. Afterwards, where the property is also used to make taxable supplies here, the Ontario rate is 13% and registration becomes compulsory once taxable supplies pass $30,000 across four consecutive calendar quarters.

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What the Holding Years Now Require

All three of the years that remain open are calendar years now closed, and that is where the work on this page sits. The Underused Housing Tax applied for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years, and the Canada Revenue Agency’s wording on the relief is exact: affected owners do not need to file a return or pay the underused housing tax for 2025 and subsequent calendar years. That relief is not retroactive, and every requirement for those three years, including the penalties and interest for failing to file or pay by their deadlines, still applies. Whether you were an owner required to file for any given one of them turns on how title was held in that year and on which exemptions were available, so it is settled year by year against your ownership record rather than answered once. Beyond that, holding a property generates less federal filing than most owners expect. What generates filing is a corporation on title, which owes a return for every one of its own fiscal years whether the property earned anything or sat empty, and rent, which brings its own withholding and its own return and is a separate engagement run from our non-resident rent withholding page. Where open years are being brought in late, Form RC4288 asks for penalty and interest relief and Form RC199 carries a Voluntary Disclosures Program submission.

Accounting & Tax Experts for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate

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Why Choose Our Accounting Services for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate?

1
🎯

Tax Planning — The Closing Figure Before the Closing Date

What the transfer will cost in provincial and municipal charges is worked out from your own agreement and given to you in writing, early enough that money can be moved across a border without drama.

2
👥

Consulting — Personally, a Canadian Company, or Neither

The three ways of holding Canadian property behave differently on the way out rather than on the way in. We set out what each does and point at the arithmetic, instead of asserting a conclusion we have not costed.

3
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CRA Representation — Open Years and Late Returns

Unfiled 2022 to 2024 Underused Housing Tax years are brought in oldest first with relief requested separately, and we never answer a letter before we are holding the ownership record it concerns.

4
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Bookkeeping — The Cost Base From Day One

The purchase, the closing charges and every capital improvement are posted against the property from the first month, so the figure that decides the eventual sale is a record and not a reconstruction.

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Foreign Investor Tax and Accounting Services in Ontario

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Corporate Tax Filing (T2) for Foreign Investors

Prepared for the corporation that holds the property, with the rate it genuinely pays stated before the structure is settled rather than after the first assessment lands.

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Bookkeeping & Accounting for Foreign Investors

Purchase price, closing charges and capital improvements posted against the property from the first month, so the cost base is a record rather than a later reconstruction.

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Property Holding Structure Review for Foreign Investors

Personally, a Canadian company or a company registered where you live, compared on your own figures, with the calculators doing the arithmetic in place of a general rule.

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GST/HST Filing for Foreign Investors

13% where you genuinely supply here, the registration question tested against your Canadian sales, and the new-build position read off your own agreement before closing.

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Tax Planning for Foreign Investors

The closing figure produced from your agreement in writing and dated, with a Toronto purchase modelled apart from one anywhere else in the province.

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Underused Housing Tax Catch-Up Filing for Foreign Investors

The 2022, 2023 and 2024 years brought in oldest first, with cancellation of penalties and interest requested separately on Form RC4288.

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CRA Review Representation for Foreign Investors

Letters about unfiled years and misread title answered with the transfer, the share register and the closing package assembled before any reply goes out.

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CPA Property Statements for Foreign Investors

Figures a lender or a family office will accept, with the property, the financing and the charges paid at closing shown as separate lines.

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Incorporation Services for Foreign Investors

Registration, first year end and share structure handled where a Canadian company is the chosen route, with its accounts opened before the purchase closes.

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Catch-Up Bookkeeping Services for Foreign Investors

Years of ownership rebuilt from closing documents, mortgage statements and property tax bills until the ledger and the bank record tell one story.

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Cross-Border Coordination for Foreign Investors

Both countries’ filings handled as a single exercise, with the home-country credit left to the home country and the structure documented while the facts are fresh.

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Voluntary Disclosure Program for Foreign Investors

Come forward on open Underused Housing Tax years, or on returns never filed at all, using Form RC199 and before the Agency makes contact.

Accounting & Tax Services Tailored for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate

Twelve services, written for an owner who lives outside Canada, bought residential property here, and needs the acquisition and the holding years settled before a sale puts them beyond fixing.

  • Where a Canadian corporation holds the property, it owes a return for every one of its own fiscal years from registration onward, whether the building earned anything in the year or sat empty and unlet.
  • The combined Ontario rate of about 12.2% on the first $500,000 of active business income is the figure most owners have in mind when they incorporate, and more than one condition stands between a non-resident-owned property company and it.
  • We state the rate your corporation will actually pay before the structure is settled rather than after the first assessment arrives, because the gap between those two figures is what makes people regret incorporating.
  • Shareholder loans, the money sent in from abroad to fund the purchase and anything taken back out are tracked as they happen, since a balance nobody can explain turns into an income inclusion by default.
  • Where a year was never filed at all, subsection 152(7) of the Income Tax Act permits an assessment from the information already in the Agency’s hands, which is a statement of fact rather than a threat.
  • The purchase price, the statement of adjustments, the land transfer tax and the Non-Resident Speculation Tax paid at closing are posted against the property in the month of closing and never merged into one figure.
  • Which of those closing costs belongs in the property’s cost base and which is a current expense is decided on your own documents and recorded with the reasoning, because it gets read again only on the sale.
  • Capital improvements are separated from repairs as they are incurred rather than argued about years afterwards, and each one is supported by the invoice and by the payment that actually went with it.
  • Money moved in from your own country to fund the purchase or the carrying costs is recorded with its date, its source account and the rate used, since currency questions arrive long after the paperwork is lost.
  • If your records already sit in QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage 50, Buildium or Yardi, that is where we work, and the closing paperwork reaches us through Dext or through Hubdoc.
  • The three realistic ways to hold Canadian property are personally, through a Canadian corporation, or through a company registered where you live, and they differ far more at the exit than at the purchase.
  • Incorporating does not by itself answer the Non-Resident Speculation Tax question, because whether a corporation counts as a foreign entity is decided by Ontario’s own definitions read against your share register.
  • We put the arithmetic in front of you rather than asserting an answer, and money coming back out of a Canadian company is costed on our non-resident shareholder calculator first.
  • Where a company registered in the United States is on title or is being proposed, the comparison runs through our Canadian corporation and US LLC calculator instead of through an assumption.
  • We do not advise on whether a structure is lawful or sensible for reasons outside tax, and we name the part of that question which belongs to a lawyer rather than folding a guess into our own scope.
  • Buying residential property here and making taxable supplies here are different questions, and owning a Canadian property does not by itself put you under a sales tax registration duty at all.
  • Where you supply goods or services here, Ontario charges 13%, and a registration duty begins once your taxable supplies cross $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters taken as a rolling total.
  • On a new or substantially renovated build, whether tax was embedded in the builder’s price, whether anything is self-assessed and whether a rebate is open to you are read off your own agreement before closing.
  • We will not state a general answer on new-build tax for a non-resident purchaser, because the outcome turns on the agreement, the intended use and who signs it, and a wrong answer there is expensive.
  • Where an account already exists because of other Canadian activity, we leave it where it is and keep the property engagement from leaning on it or inheriting its reporting periods by accident.
  • The planning on this file is calendar work and funding work rather than rate work, because the largest charge has a fixed date attached to it and no mechanism exists anywhere to move that date.
  • We produce the closing figure from your agreement of purchase and sale in writing, carrying the date we prepared it, so that your treasury is moving money against a number instead of an estimate.
  • A purchase in the City of Toronto is modelled separately from one anywhere else in Ontario, because the municipal charge introduced on 1 January 2025 sits on top of the provincial one rather than replacing it.
  • Where a rebate or an exemption might reach your transfer, we read the conditions in force against your documents and tell you plainly whether we think the position is arguable or whether it is not.
  • The 53.53% figure quoted in most comparisons is Ontario’s top combined rate for a resident individual, and a non-resident is not taxed on that basis, so we build the comparison from your own residence position.
  • The Underused Housing Tax has been eliminated for 2025 and subsequent calendar years, and the Canada Revenue Agency’s wording is that affected owners need neither file a return nor pay for those years.
  • That relief is not retroactive. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 years are untouched by it, and every requirement attaching to them, including the penalties and interest for filing or paying late, still applies.
  • Whether you were required to file for a particular one of those three years turns on how title was held in that year and on which exemptions were available, so it is settled one year at a time.
  • The earliest open year goes in ahead of the others, because anything owed on it has been accruing since that year’s own deadline and carries on accruing while the return stays outstanding.
  • Form RC4288 is then used to ask that the penalties and the interest be cancelled where the failure traces back to something outside your hands, and we lodge it as its own request.
  • A letter about an unfiled year is answered with the ownership record and the closing package, and we assemble both of those before the first reply leaves this office rather than afterwards.
  • Where the Agency’s position rests on how title was held, the answer is the transfer and the share register as they actually read, and not how the arrangement was described to anybody at the time.
  • Correspondence sent to an address you left several years ago is a common and entirely solvable cause of an assessment, and establishing the delivery history is usually the first useful thing we do.
  • An assessment that is simply wrong is met with a notice of objection inside the statutory period, built on your own documents rather than on whatever the letter assumed to begin with.
  • Record requests aimed at files sitting in another country are answered in a shape a Canadian reviewer can actually use, which on a property file of this kind shortens a review more than argument.
  • Where a lender in Canada or abroad needs figures it can rely on, we prepare the compilation engagement report so that the property, its cost base and its financing each appear as their own line.
  • The charges paid at closing are shown apart from the purchase price, because a reader who sees only one combined number cannot tell what the property cost and what the province charged on top.
  • Statements are produced as part of closing the period instead of weeks afterwards, so the figures reach a mortgage renewal or a family office on the day they were actually promised.
  • Amounts are stated in Canadian dollars and in the currency you report in at home, with the conversion basis disclosed instead of left for the reader to work out from the numbers in front of them.
  • Where the property is the only thing the company owns, the statements say exactly that rather than implying a trading business that does not exist and inviting questions nobody actually needs.
  • Where a Canadian corporation is the chosen route, we handle the registration, the first fiscal period end and the share structure, and open the accounts it will need before the purchase closes.
  • The first year end is chosen deliberately rather than taken by default, since between them the year end and the share structure fix every filing deadline the new company will be working to.
  • Who sits on the board and who may sign for the company are legal and residency questions rather than accounting ones, and we say so plainly instead of quietly drafting around them.
  • Where a property is already owned personally and a company is now wanted, we stop and say that moving it is a transaction with consequences of its own, not an administrative change of name.
  • We do not tell you that a corporation is the right answer. We cost both routes, state which parts of that decision are ours to make, and name the parts that are somebody else’s.
  • Years of ownership are rebuilt from the closing documents, the mortgage statements, the property tax bills and the bank feed, taken in the order the overdue filings are going to have to follow.
  • Each amount sent in from abroad is traced to what it actually paid for, because on a neglected property file the commonest finding is capital spending recorded as though it were a cost of carrying.
  • Where the original closing documents cannot be found, we say what is still unknown rather than estimating, since a reconstruction that guesses is worse than one which marks its own gaps clearly.
  • Property tax, utilities, condominium fees and insurance are gathered against the years they belong to, which is also what establishes whether the property was occupied in any given year.
  • Nothing is filed until the ledger, the bank history and the closing package agree with one another, because an open return built on a rebuild that disagrees with itself invites a second look.
  • A Canadian property almost always has to be reported where you live as well, and the two filings are handled as one exercise so that an amount is not described differently on each side.
  • Where a United States company or an individual filing in the United States is on title, both returns are prepared together and the gap between the two sets of deadlines is planned for in advance.
  • Relief for Canadian tax in your home country is granted by your home country under its own rules, and we say plainly that we do not determine another jurisdiction’s credit on your behalf.
  • Where a company registered outside Canada holds the property, the comparison against a Canadian company is costed rather than asserted, and the structure is documented while the facts are still fresh.
  • Questions about immigration status, residence permits or your right to acquire property are not tax questions, and we refer them out instead of reasoning about them from a tax starting point.
  • Where nothing at all was filed for the open years, the Voluntary Disclosures Program rewards whoever speaks first, and Form RC199 carries the submission with nothing whatever left out of it.
  • A submission must take in every affected period rather than the ones easiest to rebuild, and each period it names has to be at least twelve months past its own due date to qualify.
  • Whether a particular return type is eligible for the program is confirmed against its current conditions before anything is lodged, rather than assumed from the way it worked on some older file.
  • Acceptance relieves the penalties and some of the interest while leaving the tax itself, and measured against an assessment on exactly the same facts that is a very different sum for an owner abroad to find.
  • If the Canada Revenue Agency has already contacted you about those particular years, the program is no longer open for them, and we tell you that straight away instead of building a submission.

Foreign Buyer Purchase and Holding Check

Six questions on the closing charge, the Toronto municipal charge, the rebate and exemption position, the three open Underused Housing Tax years and the way the property is held. No fee shown.

1. Was the Ontario Non-Resident Speculation Tax calculated and funded before your closing date?

2. If the property sits in the City of Toronto and closed on or after 1 January 2025, was the municipal charge budgeted on top?

3. Has anybody read Ontario’s rebate and exemption conditions against your own transfer documents?

4. Did you own Canadian residential property at the end of 2022, 2023 or 2024?

5. Was an Underused Housing Tax return filed for each of those years in which you owned it?

6. Do you know whether title is held personally, by a Canadian company or by a company registered abroad?

Free CPA Consultation for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate

Case Studies: Foreign Investor Accounting & Tax

Collingwood — A 25% Charge Nobody Had Budgeted For

The problem: A buyer resident overseas agreed to purchase a Collingwood chalet in 2023 on the understanding, picked up from an article written before October 2022, that Ontario’s foreign buyer charge reached only the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The provincial charge had in fact applied across the whole province since 25 October 2022, and the amount was nowhere in the closing budget.

What we did: We produced the charge from the agreement of purchase and sale as one written figure carrying the date we prepared it, set it beside the ordinary land transfer tax so that the lawyer’s trust requirement was a single number rather than a set of loose estimates, read Ontario’s exemption and rebate conditions against the transfer as it was actually drafted, and said plainly which of them we thought was arguable.

The result:

  • Closing charge quantified in writing before funds moved
  • Province-wide application established from the actual dates
  • Rebate and exemption conditions read against the real transfer

Wasaga Beach — Cancelled Ahead, Still Open Behind

The problem: An owner of two Wasaga Beach properties read that the federal Underused Housing Tax had been eliminated and concluded that the returns he had never filed for 2022, 2023 and 2024 had gone with it. They had not. The relief runs from 2025 onward and is not retroactive, so three years of returns, penalties and interest were all still live when he called us.

What we did: We established from the title history which of the three years each property had to be dealt with for, prepared the outstanding returns oldest first so that anything owed stopped growing from the earliest date forward, and lodged a separate request on Form RC4288 for cancellation of penalties and interest rather than hoping that a late filing would attract leniency by itself.

The result:

  • Three closed years identified property by property
  • Outstanding returns prepared oldest first
  • Penalty and interest relief requested on Form RC4288

Thornbury — Incorporated for a Rate the Company Never Had

The problem: A non-resident investor registered an Ontario corporation to buy a Thornbury property, having been told abroad that a Canadian company would pay around 12.2% on its first $500,000. That combined rate applies to active business income, which a property held for investment does not generally produce, and no corporate return had been filed in the two years since the company was registered.

What we did: We filed the outstanding corporate returns from the closing documents and the bank record, set the rate the company was actually going to pay beside the rate it had been promised, reconstructed the shareholder loan account from the money sent in to fund the purchase, and costed holding personally against holding in the company on the investor’s own figures before anything was unwound.

The result:

  • Outstanding corporate returns filed from the closing file
  • Promised rate and actual rate set side by side
  • Shareholder loan rebuilt from the purchase funding

Our Simple Process

How We Work With Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate

Know Exact Fees within 2 Minutes NOW

Our clear, efficient process ensures every step is transparent, building trust and long-term client relationships.

The shape of the engagement:
Step 1

Kickoff (Document Request)

What we ask for first: the agreement of purchase and sale, the statement of adjustments and every closing document your lawyer issued, the transfer or title search, the share register where a company is on title, the ownership history from 2022 onward, and any correspondence already received from the Canada Revenue Agency or the Ontario Ministry of Finance.

Step 2

First 30 Days (Closing File & Open Years)

The acquisition file assembled with the charges paid at closing identified apart from the purchase price, the rebate and exemption position read against the transfer as drafted, the 2022 to 2024 Underused Housing Tax years tested one at a time, and the holding structure written down as it actually stands today.

Step 3

Ongoing Close

The corporate return filed for each of the company’s own fiscal years where a company is on title, property tax, utilities and insurance posted against the year they belong to, capital improvements separated from repairs as they are incurred, and the record bundle under section 230 kept where a Canadian reviewer can be shown it.

Step 4

Quarterly Planning Review

The structure retested against what you now intend to do with the property, the cost base confirmed as improvements are added to it, any outstanding year chased while it is still small, and Ontario’s rules rechecked where a rebate or an exemption is still in play on your transfer.

Step 5

Year-End Close & Exit Readiness

The year’s figures closed off, the cost base restated with everything capitalised during the year, the ownership record filed against each calendar year it covers, and the sale side handed across to our non-resident disposition page once a sale is genuinely in contemplation.

Get Your Foreign Investor Taxes Done Right Today

Transparent Pricing for Foreign Investors

Affordable Pricing for Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate

Know Exact Fees within 2 Minutes NOW

We believe in clear, upfront pricing so you know exactly what to expect. All fees include HST.

  • Tax Preparation (Corporation) — From $400
  • Tax Return Filing (Corporation) — From $400
  • Tax Compliance Audit — FREE CRA audit support for our clients
  • Tax Strategy — FREE for our clients
  • Accounting Base Plan — From $100 per month
  • Bookkeeping Management — Free for our Accounting clients
  • Financial Reporting — Free for our Accounting clients
  • Business Formation — Flat $35
  • Incorporation Process — Flat $35
  • Entity Setup Assistance — Flat $35
  • Full-Service Payroll — From $125 per month

Payment is by Interac e-Transfer to info@gondaliyacpa.ca only. Security question: Not Applicable, as auto-deposit is enabled.

Meet Your Lead Foreign Investor Accountant

Two people handle your file, the same two every year. They know what your closing actually cost, which of the open years are cleared and how the title is held.

Sharad Gondaliya CPA

Sharad Gondaliya, CPA

Principal

Bio

647-212-9559
sharad@gondaliyacpa.ca

Vandana Goel CPA

Vandana Goel, CPA

Accounting Specialist

Bio

647-250-0242
vandana@gondaliyacpa.ca

What Our Clients Say

Over 1300 verified five-star Google reviews, and some of them come from owners living abroad who had never filed a thing in Canada before.

Serving Foreign Investors in Canadian Real Estate Across Ontario

From one pre-construction condominium to a portfolio held through a company registered abroad, the same two questions decide whether an inbound property file is in order: what was charged on the closing date, and whether the 2022 to 2024 Underused Housing Tax years were ever dealt with. We act for owners of residential property in Toronto, Markham, Oakville, North York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, Brampton, Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Barrie, Collingwood, Windsor, Ottawa and Oshawa, and since 25 October 2022 the provincial charge has read the same wherever in Ontario the property happens to sit.

Toronto (ON)

55 Queen St E Ste 1205, Toronto, ON M5C 1R6, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Mississauga (ON)

2100 Camilla Rd #716, Mississauga, ON L5A 2J8

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Brampton (ON)

4 Starhill Crescent, Brampton, ON L6R 2P9, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Scarborough (ON)

24 Clementine Square, Scarborough, ON M1G 2V7, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Vaughan (ON)

19 Cabinet Crescent, Woodbridge, ON L4L 6H9, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Oshawa (ON)

210 Durham St, Oshawa, ON L1J 5R3, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Ottawa (ON)

2090 Neepawa Ave a314, Ottawa, ON K2A 3L6, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Etobicoke (ON)

60 Stevenson Rd #1601, Etobicoke, ON M9V 2B4, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Hamilton (ON)

70 Starling Dr, Hamilton, ON L9A 0C5, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Guelph (ON)

1155 Gordon St, Guelph, ON N1L 1S8, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

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Windsor (ON)

4387 Guppy Ct, Windsor, ON N9G 2N8, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

North York (ON)

150 Graydon Hall Dr #912, North York, ON M3A 3B2, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

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Foreign Investor Accounting & Tax FAQs

Do I pay extra tax when I buy property in Ontario as a foreign buyer?
Yes, and on most of these closings it is the largest single item. Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax is 25%, and since 25 October 2022 it has applied to residential purchases anywhere in the province rather than only within the Greater Golden Horseshoe. It is charged in addition to the ordinary land transfer tax, not instead of it. A purchase in the City of Toronto that closed on or after 1 January 2025 carries a further municipal charge of 10% on top of the provincial one. What matters practically is the timing: all of it is settled on the closing date out of the funds sitting in your lawyer’s trust account, so the figure has to be known early enough for money to be moved across a border. We produce it from your agreement of purchase and sale in writing, with the date we prepared it shown on the page.
Is the Non-Resident Speculation Tax an income tax?
No, and this is the single most useful thing to understand about the NRST. It is a land transfer charge. It sits inside the land transfer tax system, it is calculated on the transfer rather than on any income or gain, it is administered by the Ontario Ministry of Finance rather than by the Canada Revenue Agency, and it is paid on closing by whoever registers the transfer, which in practice means your real estate lawyer remits it out of closing funds. Nothing about it behaves like a return. There is no filing deadline to plan around, no instalment schedule, nothing to carry forward and no loss that can be set against it. Either the money is there on the closing date or the transaction does not close. Administering it at closing is your lawyer’s work rather than ours; ours is making sure the number is right, known in advance, and funded.
Does Toronto charge its own foreign buyer tax on top of Ontario’s?
Yes. The City of Toronto introduced its own Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax of 10% with effect from 1 January 2025, and it stacks on the provincial 25% rather than replacing it or being credited against it. The combined figure commonly reported for a Toronto purchase is therefore 35%, before the ordinary provincial and municipal land transfer taxes that every purchaser pays. Two authorities, two calculations, one closing date. In our experience the municipal charge is the one that gets missed, partly because it is recent and partly because a great deal of the material online about foreign buyer tax in Ontario predates it entirely. We model a Toronto purchase separately from one anywhere else in the province for precisely that reason.
Does the charge apply outside Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe?
Yes, and this is where older material misleads people most. When the Non-Resident Speculation Tax was introduced in 2017 at 15% it was a regional charge. It went to 20% earlier in 2022 and then to 25% on 25 October 2022, and from that date it has applied across the entire province. A cottage near Collingwood, a house in the far north and a condominium downtown are all inside it. Because the rate moved twice in a short period, the rate that applied to a given purchase depends on that purchase’s own dates, so where you bought before October 2022 we establish from your documents which rate was in force instead of assuming the current one.
Can I get the Non-Resident Speculation Tax back?
An NRST rebate exists in defined circumstances, and there are also exemptions that can apply at the time of the transfer. We are deliberately not printing the conditions or any deadline on this page. The reason is that the secondary sources conflict with one another on both points, and an owner who relies on the wrong version loses the rebate rather than merely losing an argument. What we do instead is read the conditions in force against your own transfer documents, confirm them against Ontario’s own rules before anyone relies on them, and tell you plainly whether we think your position is arguable. If you are anywhere near a deadline, that confirmation is the first thing to get, and getting it is quick.
Does the charge apply if my spouse is Canadian?
There are exemptions in Ontario’s rules and they turn on the identity of every person taking title and on how that title is held, not on how the arrangement is described afterwards. We do not publish an exemption checklist, and we would be wary of anyone who does, because getting one of these wrong is not something a later return corrects. It is corrected at closing or it is not corrected. We read the rules as they stand against your draft transfer, before registration, and say which exemption we think applies and why. Where the answer is genuinely uncertain we say that as well, and the decision about how to proceed is then yours and your lawyer’s to take.
Was the Underused Housing Tax cancelled?
For 2025 and subsequent calendar years, yes. The Canada Revenue Agency’s wording is exact: affected owners do not need to file a return or pay the underused housing tax for 2025 and subsequent calendar years. The change came through the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, which received royal assent on 26 March 2026. So if the question is whether there is an Underused Housing Tax return to prepare for this year, the answer is no. That is a real reduction in the annual compliance a non-resident owner carries, and it is worth stating plainly, because a great deal of advice written before that date still describes the return as an ongoing annual obligation.
I never filed an Underused Housing Tax return for 2022 or 2023. Does the cancellation fix that?
No, and this is the trap. The relief is not retroactive. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years are unaffected by it, and all of the requirements for those years continue to apply, including the penalties and interest for failing to file or to pay by their own deadlines. An owner who never filed them has live exposure on three closed years, and it does not improve by being left. These are dealt with oldest first, because anything owed on the earliest year has been accruing the longest. Whether you were required to file for a particular year turns on how title was held in that year and on which exemptions were available, so we settle it year by year against your ownership record rather than answering it once for all three.
What do I actually have to file every year just for holding the property?
Less than most owners expect, and less than last year. Holding Canadian property by itself, with no rent and no sale, does not generate much federal annual filing now that the Underused Housing Tax has gone for 2025 onward. Two things change that. If a corporation is on title, that corporation owes a return for every one of its own fiscal years whether the property earned anything or sat empty. And if the property is rented, the rent brings its own withholding and its own return, which is a separate engagement; our non-resident rent withholding and compliance page deals with that side of it. Municipal property tax, utilities and condominium fees are bills rather than filings, and the Canada Revenue Agency does not administer any of them.
Should I buy through a Canadian corporation?
It depends on the exit you have in mind, and it is costed rather than assumed. Two points come up on nearly every call. First, incorporating does not by itself answer the Non-Resident Speculation Tax question, because whether a corporation counts as a foreign entity under Ontario’s rules is decided by those rules read against your share register, and many owners incorporate expecting that to settle it. Second, the combined Ontario rate of about 12.2% on the first $500,000 of active business income is usually the figure people have in mind, and more than one condition stands between a non-resident-owned property company and it; we tell you on your own file which of them you fail and why. Be careful with the other number you will have seen: 53.53% is Ontario’s top combined personal rate for a resident individual, and a non-resident owner is not taxed on that basis, so a comparison lifted from a resident example tells you nothing about your own position. We run the arithmetic on your own numbers, and because the structure also changes where you stand on the eventual sale, our page on selling Canadian property as a non-resident covers that half of it.
Do I pay HST on a new-build purchase?
Possibly, and the answer comes off your own agreement rather than from a general rule. On a new or substantially renovated residential property, tax may be embedded in the builder’s price, and whether anything falls to be self-assessed and whether a rebate is open to you depend on the terms of the agreement, the intended use of the property and who is signing it. We will not state a flat answer for a non-resident purchaser on a web page, because the outcome genuinely turns on those facts and a wrong answer here is a five-figure mistake. Separately, owning a property does not by itself create a sales tax registration duty. If you are supplying goods or services here, Ontario’s rate is 13%, and you must register once taxable supplies cross $30,000 measured over four consecutive calendar quarters on a rolling basis.
Can a non-Canadian still buy residential property in Canada?
There is a federal prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians, and we are not going to state its current status or its end date on this page. It has been extended at least once, the position has moved more than once, and a page that is six months stale on a point like that does real harm. It is also not a tax question. It is a question about whether a transaction may lawfully proceed, with definitions and exceptions of its own, and the people who need certainty about it are you and your real estate lawyer before an agreement is signed. What we do is flag it as one of the first things to confirm on the file, tell you where the answer has to come from, and refuse to guess at it, which is the only honest thing a CPA can do with a rule that moves.
What if I bought years ago and have never filed anything in Canada?
Then the order of the work matters more than the arguments. We start with what the property is and how it is held, because that decides what was ever owed. Then the open Underused Housing Tax years for 2022 to 2024, oldest first. Then any corporate years, where a company is on title. Under subsection 152(7) the Agency may assess an unfiled year from whatever information it already holds, so an unfiled year is not a quiet year. Where nothing at all was filed, the Voluntary Disclosures Program on Form RC199 is the route we test, and its advantage is only available before the Agency contacts you, which is why making the first call early is worth money. Where returns went in late rather than not at all, Form RC4288 asks for the penalties and interest to be cancelled.

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Foreign Investor Accounting & Tax Done Right.

Ontario’s Non-Resident Speculation Tax at 25%, applying across the whole province since 25 October 2022, quantified from your own agreement of purchase and sale and handed to you in writing before the closing date, because it is a land transfer charge settled out of trust funds on the day rather than an income tax that can wait for a return. The City of Toronto’s own 10% municipal charge, in force since 1 January 2025, modelled on top where the property sits inside the city. The rebate and exemption position read against your actual transfer and confirmed against Ontario’s own rules instead of against a secondary article. The federal Underused Housing Tax eliminated for 2025 and subsequent calendar years, and the 2022, 2023 and 2024 years that the relief does not reach brought in oldest first, with cancellation of penalties and interest requested on Form RC4288. The holding structure costed on your own figures rather than asserted. Section 230 records held for six years, somewhere a Canadian reviewer can be shown them. AFFORDABLE flat fees, no hourly billing. Licensed CPA Ontario. 1450+ five-star reviews. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.



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