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CRA recovers $240-million in real estate tax-fraud probe, but lags in B.C.
DANIEL LEBLANC
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 5:19PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 7:59PM EDT

CRA recovers $240-million in real estate tax-fraud probe, but lags in B.C. - The Globe and Mail

http://static.theglobeandmail.ca/e18...fraud-1019.JPG
Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier speaks during in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 28, 2016.
(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

The Canada Revenue Agency’s crackdown on tax fraud in the overheated real estate markets of Ontario and British Columbia is bearing fruit, with auditors recovering $240-million in unpaid taxes and $12.5-million in additional penalties over the past 18 months, new figures show.

The money is being recovered as auditors focus on several issues identified in a series of stories in The Globe and Mail, including property flipping, efforts to hide capital gains and avoid paying sales taxes, and false ownership statements.

Still, the new figures show the CRA has a lot of catching up to do in British Columbia, where the federal agency doubled its auditing effort last year in response to widespread concerns over fraud and rising real estate prices.

The numbers show the CRA audited nearly six times as many files and recovered seven times more money in Ontario than in British Columbia between April, 2015, and September, 2016. By contrast, Ontario’s population is only three times higher than British Columbia’s.

The CRA added it was in the midst of a special review of 500 large real estate transactions in B.C. that is designed to “uncover any tax issues that may not have already been identified.”

“We are making a clear effort in British Columbia and our goal is to recover as much money [as in Ontario], if not more,” Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier said in an interview.

The CRA’s auditing efforts follow growing concerns over an affordability crisis in Vancouver and Toronto. The Globe has reported on a number of cases in which foreign-born owners declared low incomes despite moving millions of dollars through relatives into Canada, and revealed concerns that poor reporting by real estate agents has made the industry vulnerable to money laundering.

As part of its work in the real estate market, the CRA has started to publish new data on its website to show how many files it has opened and how much money it has recovered.

Over the past 18 months, the CRA looked into 13,403 files in Ontario (mostly in the Greater Toronto Area), recovering $210-million. During the same period, the CRA audited 2,366 files in B.C., for a total recovery of $30-million.

When the CRA determines that a taxpayer knowingly made a false statement on a return, it can impose a penalty that is equal to 50 per cent of the additional tax that is payable. In both Ontario and B.C., the CRA applied $12.5-million in penalties in 663 cases over the 18-month period, for an average of $18,850 per case.

In the biggest case, the federal tax-collection agency imposed a penalty of $2.5-million against a single taxpayer, meaning the individual had hidden nearly $5-million in payable taxes on his or her return.

As they look into real estate deals, CRA auditors are focusing their efforts on the following five issues:

The “source of funds” to buy or maintain and renovate a property, to see whether the owner is involved in tax evasion or illegal activities, or helping to shield the identity of a wealthy buyer;
“Property flipping” by real estate agents, renovators and speculators, to ensure that profits from real estate deals are properly reported to the CRA;
“Unreported GST/HST” on the sale of new or substantially renovated properties, in cases where houses are not used as a primary place of residence;
“Unreported capital gains” on secondary residences or houses sold by non-residents in Canada;
“Unreported worldwide income” by residents of Canada who have to report their worldwide income to the CRA.
“What is important for us is to recover the money that is owed and reinvest it in our communities. We are trying to protect all Canadians and ensure that middle-class Canadians can have access to home ownership,” Ms. Lebouthillier said.

you're delusional. I just sold my condo and glad I did. I get listings for SFH emailed to me by my realtor and the prices are definitely dropping.

maybe the condo market with hundreds going up in the sky but not detached, etc

Its the opposite in some areas. Near me, the condo prices are staying flat, still ridiculously high, and detached are dropping. This is in North Vancouver.

Burnabh/coquitlam strata properties are the same if not higher than before from what I've seen

This.

It depends on the area and the type of home. It's also too early to tell exactly what is going on in the broad market. It's safe to say prices are lowering for the time being, but to try and pin point where and on what is dependent on a lot more factors.

Luxury homes are the most affected by market swings, so obviously those are dropping down, now when I say luxury homes, I don't mean houses on the west end worth 10 million, or waterfront west van worth 30 million. I am talking about houses in the top 90% of the neighborhood values, aka every neighborhood has their own version of a luxury home.

The market for condos and lower end homes is less volatile as a whole, there is always buyers, and people less often get themselves into trouble on those types of properties, AKA when the sign of a market recession strikes, they are more likely to bunker down and ride it out.

Again these are broad generalizations, there are lots of microeconomic factors at work in different regions which influence prices.

I have no doubt that a drop in the current condo construction race is coming. So far we havnt seen it, because enough time to stop already greenlit projects hasn't elapsed. But you can bet your ass Brentwood is fucked. They got 8 towers left to sell, in an area that's seen massive development in the last 5-10 years, lots of people bought in brentwood as flipper properties. So while the developer is trying to sell towers 4, 5 and 6, they will have competing sellers in the first three towers. I hope the developers margins are high enough, cause they are going to be left with a lot of units, or else they are going to slow/stop construction and wait it out.

City of Lougheed had Asians fill the showroom on opening day. Lots of lookie-loos I'm sure, but the Chinese like access to public transit and like to be where other Chinese are. I think values along the Skytrain will hold for the long term.

The prices for some newer presale buildings, such as Fulton House and the new Ledmac building by Holdom seem to be less than what older units in concrete buildings were going for at the height of the frenzy in the spring.

Prices for some strata properties are definitely dropping in the Tri-Cities, some by as much as 10%.

That area of Burquitlam has always had a lot of international students, not just chinese. Lots of Koreans too.
There is an international school near by, so rental demand will be there so some of the interested parties are not just flippers.

The city of Lougheed tower 1 is definitely not as nice most of the Concorde pacific towers going up. Finishings left a lot to be desired when we went through the show homes.

From my patio I can see the city of Lougheed sales center, open house this Saturday! So I'm really hoping someone will see the value in an older building in our place as opposed to these tiny units in the city of Lougheed development.

Our unit is bigger than 90% of the units in city of Lougheed at 900 sq feet.

Some pics from city of Lougheed open house:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...psgzcfwkj8.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pszdzlk6rr.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y13...pstmglc48d.jpg

So in that last pic, none of those glass towers currently exist.

It's going to be Brentwood 2.0

how much for a janitor closet :alone:

The last pic is probably a good representation of interested buyers :lol

The new development is interesting, especially coming from someone who's lived in the area most of my life. I haven't looked at the community plan yet, but my dad says that our street will be bulldozed and replaced with low rises in the future.

All of the rental buildings up north road are going to be torn down eventually.

Lougheed mall will be torn down and redeveloped into an outside causeway type mall with grocery stores etc 20 towers over the next 30 years

I see Shape on those drawing, same Developer as Brentwood so no doubt it will be similar.

With condos it's all about the area and building. My units in YT hit their peak in July and have come down ever since but they've stabilized now. Rent on the other hand has gone up quite a bit.

On a side note, I inquired about the new river district presales and they're now asking for 30% deposit if you're a non-resident, standard 20% if you're a resident. First time I've seen this.

Are you talking about Avalon Park?

Yup, the first phase which will be the woodframe lowrise.

My gf's mom is looking into that development. I'll be going with her to check it out.

Depends on the area. The pre sale I purchase near metro town went by nearly 12k. i was thinking of selling it as soon as I told a few ppl they mention they will just take it off my hands right away.

I might actually sell it since I might be moving away in the next few years and don't really want to tie down to a mortgage.

Looking for a rental condo downtown, supply is indeed limited even with my "generous" budget.

Where are you looking and when do you need to move in? One of my 1 bedrooms in YT might be available in Dec if you're interested.

Anytime between now and Dec 15th, min 900 sq ft 1bed 1.5bath.

I always wonder how they plan to deal with the grid lock, whether it be Brentwood or City of Lougheed. They are adding numerous buildings with thousands of new residences, but it doesn't look like the surrounding roads are being expanded. The last time I was around Austin and North road area, the traffic was such a nightmare.

Right now, traffic there isn't that bad.
Definitely no where as bad as say Main and Terminal ave or Cambie and Marine dr. :heckno:

Traffic tends to stay on Lougheed or else people take Hwy 1 if they are going east west. If you go east on Austin, it ends on Mariner Way and then you have to go north or south, so really Austin isn't a preferred road.
Same goes for North Rd. It's not that busy because it goes north south and doesn't really connect to any of the busier routes other than going south to go to New West.