With the HST upon us fairly soon, here is some legal information courtesy of Spagnuolo & Co Real Estate Lawyers.
HARMONIZED SALES TAX
HOW IT APPLIES TO RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE
GENERAL DISCUSSION
On July 23, 2009, British Columbia announced its plans to implement a Harmonized Sales Tax ("H.S.T.") for B.C. effective July 1, 2010. The H.S.T. is a combination of the 7% Provincial Sales Tax ("P.S.T.") with the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax ("G.S.T.") for a single sales tax rate of 12%.
For consumers, goods and services (with some exceptions) will be subject to the H.S.T. in the same manner as they are currently subject to GST. This applies to real estate as well.
For both used and new homes, there are some extra costs for buyers or sellers but these are for the services required to...