Underused Housing Tax (UHT)미활용 주택세 (연방)

What is it?

The Underused Housing Tax (UHT) is a federal tax. It charged owners of homes that were vacant or not used enough 1% of the home’s taxable value each year. The Underused Housing Tax Act received assent on June 9, 2022, and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers it.

The name makes it easy to confuse with Toronto’s Vacant Home Tax, but they are different taxes from different governments. Toronto’s tax is a City tax that every homeowner inside Toronto declares; the UHT was a federal tax across Canada, and most citizens and permanent residents had nothing to file.

What changed from 2025 (important)

The Act, as amended in 2026 (S.C. 2026, c. 3), says no UHT is payable for 2025 and later calendar years (s. 1.1). No return is required for those years either (s. 6.1). So for December 31, 2025 and later, there is nothing to file or pay under this tax.

Earlier years still count. If you were an owner on December 31 of 2024 or an earlier year and not an excluded owner, you had to file a return and pay any tax for that year, and penalties may still apply if you did not. When a non-resident sells a home, the CRA can refuse the section 116 certificate if UHT returns or payments are outstanding (Income Tax Act s. 116 (8); see "non-resident seller withholding").

2024 and earlier: who paid, and who filed?

For 2024 and earlier years, the Act taxes, and requires a return from, every person who is an owner of residential property (the person on the land registry) on December 31 of a year and is not an "excluded owner". If you were not an excluded owner, you had to file a return even when the tax was zero.

Under the current text of the Act (as amended in 2024), excluded owners include Canadian citizens and permanent residents who own in their personal capacity, specified Canadian corporations (Canadian corporations in which foreign persons do not hold 10% or more of the equity or votes), Canadian partnerships and trusts whose members and beneficiaries are all citizens, permanent residents or similar, listed corporations, registered charities and government bodies. A citizen or permanent resident who holds a home as the personal representative of a deceased person is also excluded.

So the people who actually had to file and pay were mainly individuals who are neither citizens nor permanent residents (work permit holders, students, foreign owners living abroad), foreign corporations, and Canadian corporations with 10% or more foreign ownership. The excluded owner definition was amended in 2024, so confirm with the CRA which rules apply to which filing year.

How much was it? (2024 and earlier)

Tax = 1% × taxable value × your ownership percentage. Unless a different amount is prescribed, the taxable value is the greater of the property tax assessed value (the MPAC value) and the most recent sale price on or before December 31 of that year. You can instead elect to use the fair market value, determined in a way acceptable to the CRA.

For example, if a home bought in 2024 for $900,000 had an MPAC assessed value of $600,000, the 2024 taxable value was $900,000 and the tax was $9,000. If two people owned it half each, that is $4,500 each (an estimate for reference).

Cases where you had to file but owed no tax (2024 and earlier)

• Primary place of residence: the home is the primary residence of the owner or their spouse, or of a child living there to study at a designated learning institution (s. 6(8)). A non-citizen, non-permanent-resident owner with several homes can designate only one.
• Qualifying occupancy of 180 days or more (s. 6(9)): for at least 180 days in the year, in stretches of at least one month, the home was occupied by (a) an arm’s-length tenant under a written agreement, (b) a related person under a written agreement paying at least fair rent, (c) the owner or spouse working in Canada under a work permit, or (d) a spouse, parent or child who is a citizen or permanent resident. Months in which the owner or family spent more days elsewhere do not count.
• You became an owner that year and had not owned the home in the previous nine years; the owner died that year or the year before (and their personal representative); or a co-owner with at least 25% died.
• The home is not suitable for year-round use, is seasonally inaccessible, was uninhabitable for 60 days or more because of a disaster, or for 120 days or more because of a renovation (once in ten years); new construction not substantially completed before April; or a never-occupied new home completed in January to March and offered for sale that year.

For 2024 and earlier years, an exemption removed the tax, not the duty to file. If you were not an excluded owner, you claimed the exemption on the return.

What were the deadlines?

For each year, both the return and the tax were due April 30 of the following year. For example, an owner on December 31, 2024 had to file the 2024 return and pay by April 30, 2025. A separate return was filed for each property. From the 2025 year on, there is no return and no tax (ss. 1.1, 6.1).

For the return form, the tax number you need and how to file online, check the CRA website (canada.ca). This entry was checked against the Act only; the CRA guidance pages could not be opened.

If you did not file for a past year

The penalty for a late return for 2024 or an earlier year is large. The Act sets it at the greater of a minimum of $1,000 for an individual or $2,000 for anyone else, and 5% of the tax plus 3% of the tax for each full month late. The minimum applies even when the tax is zero.

And if the return is still not filed by December 31 of the following year, the penalty is calculated as if the main exemptions (primary residence, 180-day occupancy, renovation and others) did not exist, so someone who would have owed nothing is penalized on the full 1%. Deliberately failing to file or pay is also an offence with separate fines. If you missed a past year, talk to an accountant.

How is it different from Toronto’s Vacant Home Tax?

The two taxes are separate. For 2024 and earlier years a foreign owner of a Toronto home could owe both; from 2025 there is no federal UHT, but Toronto’s Vacant Home Tax must still be checked under the City’s rules.

Example