Toronto’s New Land Transfer Tax Doesn’t Bother Me
05. Dec, 2007 
2 Comments
I really don’t see the big deal on this land transfer tax thing. I certainly don’t pretend to be an expert on the subject, but to me, the issues that everybody’s debating boils down to simple rules of business: When sales slump, figure out how to remove the slump.
The banks are really the ones who hurt from lack of home sales (and lack of mortgages) and the realtors (from lack of commissions), not the average Joe. The average Joe’s will just hold off buying homes for a while until the banks correct the lack of buying in the market.
Here’s what I think will happen:
As soon as the land transfer tax kicks in full steam, the banks will swoop in, with their billions of interest revenues and take care of, or subsidize the majority of the land transfer tax. And why not? They’re the biggest winners in the sale of a home anyway, earning tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments over the course of 25 or even 40 year mortgage.
After the dust settles, the real people who will hurt from this tax are those without mortgages… but, we aren’t going to feel sorry for those people, are we? The day I can afford to by a house with cash is the day I can afford, and be happy to pay, the land transfer tax.
Don’t succumb to your realtor’s scare tactic… they want the sale of a home to come quickly and without delay; if they have to instill a little fear to get the job done, well… that’s the job of any salesperson, isn’t it?
Update 10/12/07: It seems the banks are already on it: Bank of Montreal will pay your land transfer tax if your banking is with them. Hat tip to Heather Williams for pointing it out.
Hi there
Was just tweeting with a fellow who writes for ReadWriteWeb … if you don’t mind me asking: did you just come aboard w/twitter? We were wondering if folk were joining after having heard about “hoosgot”.
anyhow, nice to meet you
best of ’08 to you and yours
ben
p.s. your “About” is 404 … wanted to snoop about “little geeks”. (My kidz grew up with C-64 … broke the bank that did, $650 in 1984! But heh one’s MD and another’s webmistress/reporter and and and huh huh)
p.s.2 do folk a favour? move the “Comment” link so it stand out more? I’m fond of down near the end of the post, so’z folk see it as they’re ready for it. (Cognitive ergonimics is my hobby … I’m like that. *grin*)
cheers
Sorry Ben I don’t really have a comment on your article. I just wanted to play with the audio captcha to see what it would be like for someone who uses a screen reader. I think that it would be very difficult going in and out of “Forms Mode” as well as listening to and navigating around audio file.
I worry about the feasability of captcha’s for just this reason.
Lets see if my ears are good enough.