US income tax applies to persons due to their having citizenship (or permanent resident status). Canadian foreign ownership property taxes are the reverse, being applied to non-citizens (and non-permanent residents). These Canadian taxes are currently arousing ire with some in the US, as reported in this article by John Richardson. (Posted with permission.)
Introduction
You can see the complete twitter thread here.
A recent post describes how various Canadian Underused and Vacant property taxes might apply to unsuspecting U.S. residents (Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa) and U.S. citizens (Canada’s Underused Property Tax).
Taxes that apply to ALL owners of property
The Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa taxes apply to ALL owners (regardless of citizenship or residence) of residential property. Although these taxes apply to all owners, some U.S. citizen/residents have argued that they are disguised taxes on being American. The broad scope of these taxes makes them difficult to challenge. (continued, see lower left)
So if credit unions are provincially based financial institutions, could one be able to seek justice in something like the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal for discrimination based on citizenship?
I think none of us who are familiar with this issue are even slightly surprised at this level of hypocrisy. Does Brian understand how the USA is using citizenship to rob people and nations of money that has precisely nothing to do with the USA? Probably not, very few US politicians understand how their own tax code applies to others nations residents and citizens.
I’m going to make a prediction – when this is pointed out to Brian, he’s going to suggest that “this is different” and tie himself in knots trying to justify US citizenship based taxation of Canadian residents while condemning the Canadian tax on US owned property in Canada.
This could indeed by quite amusing.