Toronto Vacant Home Tax on a Purchase or Sale

The tax that can follow the house

Toronto charges a Vacant Home Tax on residential property that sat empty for six months or more in a calendar year. Beginning with the 2024 taxation year, the rate is 3 percent of the Current Value Assessment. On a million-dollar assessment that is $30,000, not a parking ticket.

The City of Toronto requires every residential owner to declare occupancy every year, even if you live there. Miss the deadline and the City treats the property as vacant. The tax is collected like property tax. Unpaid amounts are added to the tax roll and form a lien on the house.

On a purchase, that lien can land on the buyer. A Toronto real estate lawyer checks the City lookup and the seller's confirmation number, because an undeclared year can show up after closing.

What the City treats as vacant

Vacant means empty for six months or more in the taxation year. Principal residence for at least six months is not vacant. Snowbirds and work travel are fine if the house is still your principal residence. You only get one of those.

Occupied by someone else also works: a tenant with a written agreement of at least 30 days, totalling at least six months, or family or friends using it as their principal residence for six months.

Each condo unit is its own declaration. Multiple properties means one filing each. You do not declare vacant land, a parking space, a locker, or a property assessed fully as multi-residential, commercial, or industrial.

This year's calendar

The 2025 occupancy year ran 1 January to 31 December 2025. Declarations were due 30 April 2026. The portal is closed. Owners who owe will see a Vacant Home Tax Notice in June 2026. Payments for 2025 are due in three instalments: 15 September, 15 October, and 16 November 2026.

If you were billed and the house was occupied or exempt, you dispute with a Notice of Complaint. The deadline to dispute a 2025 bill is 31 December 2026. The 2022, 2023, and 2024 complaint windows are already closed.

Who files after a sale

The City splits sales into two buckets. The difference is whether the closing fell inside the year being declared.

Sold during the year being declared

Either the seller or the buyer can file. The property usually qualifies for the transfer-of-legal-ownership exemption, so the tax should not apply for that year if the exemption is claimed. Someone still has to file. A silent file is treated as vacant.

Sold after the year being declared

Only the seller knows how the house was used the year before. The seller must file. The buyer cannot honestly declare last year's occupancy. If the seller never filed, the City still deems the house vacant. The buyer should have their lawyer press for the confirmation.

The City's own instruction is that vendors should give the purchaser a copy of the completed declaration. Buyers should confirm tax liabilities before they take title. If nobody files, the purchaser is on the hook for the bill.

The transfer exemption is narrower than a closing

The exemption applies when the closing date falls in the year being declared, and the sale was a 100 percent transfer of the property. Name changes do not count. Adding a second owner does not count. Removing a second owner does not count. Those are title changes, not this exemption.

You still declare. You attach a copy of the registered transfer. The exemption is not automatic because the Teraview file closed.

Power of sale is not an out

A power-of-sale buyer takes the property as is, including this tax. Power of sale is not an exemption. Like ordinary property tax, Vacant Home Tax attaches to the land, not to the last name on title. If the prior owner never declared, the new owner deals with it.

What actually gets checked on closing

This is not land transfer tax. It is not the federal underused-housing tax, and it is not the foreign buyers prohibition. Those are different programs with different tests.

On a Toronto residential deal the lawyer should confirm the occupancy status on the City's property-tax lookup, ask for the seller's confirmation or receipt, and watch the tax certificate for arrears. Title insurance may want evidence that declarations were filed. An undeclared year is a post-closing bill, not a mystery line on the statement of adjustments.

The agreement of purchase and sale can allocate who files and who pays if a bill arrives. That is deal language, not a City form. Get it in before the offer is firm if the house has been empty, tenanted, or in an estate.

Eligible exemptions still have to be declared, with documents: death of an owner, principal resident in care, permitted renovations that actually prevent occupancy, court order, certain employment and medical secondary residences, and new-build inventory in the developer's name. False declarations can add a fine of up to $10,000 on top of the tax.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)