Well, it certainly feels that way.  The deadline to file with Ottawa is Monday, and if it slipped your mind, go directly to the sin bin and hold your head down in shame.  Oh yeah, you should prepared to pay more in penalties if you’re late.  If you’re hoping the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) won’t notice if you’ve filed or not, trust me, they’ll notice.   May 5^th is the day for you to make good with the government.  If you feel this strange sensation of a number in hands in your pocket, it’s real.  Here in Toronto, we all feel like we’ve been groped this week.

A report was released this week about the impact to the Toronto economy due to implementation of the municipal land transfer tax.  For those of you not aware, real estate purchases in Toronto are subjected to a Provincial Land Transfer Tax, as well as a municipal land transfer tax.  The net result is that anyone buying a home in Toronto, will pay the highest land transfer tax in the country.  A study was commissioned by the Ontario Real Estate Association, and the findings are interesting.  According to the report, if the municipal land transfer tax was eliminated, Toronto could see a $2 billion boost to the local economy, and possibly create 12,000 new jobs.  The municipal land transfer tax came into effect in 2008, remember what happened to the global economy 2008?, and our elected officials at that time thought it would be wise to implement  further financial burden on home buyers.  The new study suggests that the city of Toronto has experienced a decline of 38,000 home sales due to the implementation of the municipal land transfer tax, and a $1.2 billion reduction in GDP.  Of course critics of the study say that the report is self-serving because it was commissioned by the Ontario Real Estate Association.  Okay, let’s assume there was some embellishment, and we cut the number in half.  A $1 billion dollar boost to the economy, and 6,000 new jobs created is not trivial or throw away numbers.  The focus should be on the message, and not the messenger.  If you’re of the mind that this is just a Toronto problem, and too bad for them, you may want to rethink that.  Do you think your municipal politicians will be able to resist the urge to go to the real estate trough and impose their own municipal land transfer tax?  If there’s no real backlash by voters in Toronto, and the municipal land transfer tax just slowly becomes the cost of doing business, why shouldn’t your municipal council get some?   If you think it could never happen, I admire your blind faith.  Speaking of faith, I have zero in our current mayor.  It’s not because of the crack smoking, drunken stupors and all round buffoonery.  Who amongst us hasn’t sinned?  I can forgive, but what I can’t forgive is that our rehabbing mayor promised to do away with the municipal land transfer tax, and he lied. Hey, it’s one thing to lie about smoking crack, but when you promised that we could keep more of hard earned money, and you lie, now you’ve gone too far.  Unlike the mayor, the vast majority of Torontonians would invest the extra money in our children’s education, home renovations, vacations and maybe something really outrageous, like increasing their down payment on a home purchase. 

 In fairness to our esteemed municipal politicians, the ability to impose the municipal land transfer tax was granted by the Provincial Liberal’s magic wand.  Granting permission is in keeping with their modus operandi.  Like the new Provincial budget they tabled this week.  The numbers are mind-boggling, and there’s no point getting into the details because it will probably never pass, and the voters in Ontario will be heading to the polls again.  However, the budget does give us a glimpse of the Liberal’s campaign platform.  If they’re looking for a campaign slogan, I can simplify it for them. “Vote Liberal, we’ll spend and tax more”.  It’s kind of catchy.  If you’re bored this weekend, and you feel like doing a slow burn, click on the link to the Fraser Institute Personal Tax Freedom Day Calculator.  It calculates when you stop working for the government, and you start keeping your hard earned dollars.  For all of in Canada, it’s sometime in June, your personal income and the province you reside in determines the actual day.  Wait, there’s one exception, Alberta.  Albertan’s personal tax freedom day falls in May.  I love Alberta, and I have thou$ands of reasons why.

Until Next Time,

 Cheers.