For anyone who hasn’t filed all their UHT forms, you now have until April 30, 2024 to get them done interest/penalty free.
Presumably the 2023 forms will also be due April 30, 2024 so, this should be fun explaining the filing obligations to clients.
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I just got that notification, as well. You’d think they could have decided that and announced it a couple weeks ago. Would have saved a lot of time and frustration last week, including overloaded CRA phone lines.
That’s likely why they announced it today… lots of bitching from CRA staffers, so they mercied out.
Looks like upper management at CRA are fans of Taylor Swift.
“But you’ll come back each time you leave, cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”
This legislation seems like an incoherent steaming pile of garbage, applying to a far too broad group of taxpayers. It’s unreasonable to fault them for struggling to differentiate between co-ownership and partnership, or a bare trust and simply "being on title.”
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Agreed it’s not CRA’s fault that the legislation was half-baked. But I think this belongs in a different thread.
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I’m guessing the deadline was also extended once again due to CRA’s website glitches where you can’t get past entering the representative info in filing the UHT using RAC. No diagnostics offered to identify the issue.
I had this same issue this afternoon on two UHT returns (husband and wife) on the T1 side of RAC. Both got stuck in that exact same place whether the personal rep was selected or not.
Have to now figure out how to file these returnw using the DAC system, or else FAX them.
Interesting enough, I reviewed all my client base back in March and April and determined back then that none of my clients required filing this return. It was only last week that I did another review and discovered that my B & B client needed to file because they only have 3 bedrooms vs four in their detached B & B. I’m sure there are a lot of other people not aware of this legislation (my client wasn’t). In this sense, I’m grateful for the extension.
It’s quite amusing that you mention remembering clients for UHT returns. I was right in the middle of my shower when I suddenly recalled a client who would split their rental income with their brother. I was actually about to shoot her an email on this.
I’m also relieved they’ve extended the deadline. I think the knowledgeable folks at Video Tax News will dive deep into this topic, discussing the stances they’ve taken and if there’s been any recent court cases. Given the complexity, it should be an interesting discussion.
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I filed a Service Feedback RC193 form using Submit Documents about not being able to complete and file the UHT-2900 Return from the client’s T1 account on RAC. On the form, I sited that the form fails at the Representative question (whether yes or no is selected) with NO DIAGNOSTICS presented. I outlined the problem solving I did to try to get it to work to no avail. I expressed that if CRA is already aware of the issue that they should be taking the link offline until the issue is repaired, placing a note about other methods to file the UHT return so as to not waste our time with a system that doesn’t work. I expressed gratitude for the CRA extension, expressing that it should have been offered a week earlier vs waiting until today, as that would have saved us a lot of aggravation in rushing to file these returns.
On closing RAC, I was offered the CRA survey and completed that too about my experience filing the UHT using RAC today.
Why did the federal government come up with this idea in the first place? Was it to
Mask their inaction on affordable housing for decades? Did they think a tax on foreign-owned vacant properties was the magic bean seeds?
All it’s done is piss off everyone and create unnecessary work. How many foreigners could possibly be caught with the tax? Last week I was at a session on the UHT, and the numbers are staggeringly minute. And that’s assuming 100% compliance. In and near my village, there are probably 6 foreign-owned properties. Some of the owners are too old to travel, so they rent the place for a few weeks. I can’t imagine any of them volunteering a 1% tax on their properties. The penalty doesn’t concern them. Why should it? Aside from going to every provincial land registry office and searching for properties whose owners have foreign addresses, how will it ever be enforced??
There are many US residents, especially those who live near the border, that have cottages in Canada. They are getting hit with this tax. The talk is that places like Florida may reciprocate and impose a tax on snowbirds who have property in the US. It’s a real mess…
No, they are just using that problem to mask their desire to try and siphon some cash off the international drug lords and mob bosses who have been buying up McMansions in Canada, which happens because Canada is a safe place to park their ungodly amounts of cash. Such nefarious individuals are smart enough not to buy property in their own names - they set up shell corps or trusts or use Canadian residents who are on their payroll. So, to get at that handful of “affected owners” they force all the rest of us to file this ridiculous UHT return.
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What an excellent idea. Extend the deadline of the UHT return reporting 2022 stuff to April 30, 2024, which is also the deadline for filing the same form for 2023 UHT returns and also the filing deadline for something called a “T1”.
Do they really think people will take the filing deadline for 2023 UHT returns seriously? Even the threat of ridiculously large penalties hasn’t been enough to flush out all the filers this dumb tax is targetting. All the potential penalties have done is to make people not subject to the tax report their wealth to the government.
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The missed taxes/forms will likely get caught as part of the certificate of compliance upon eventual sale by the non-resident if the form is not cancelled in the next year or so as useless. I’d agree the figures are small - I deal with personal tax clients with non-Canadian issues - so those that are US Citizens, those that are foreign nationals in Canada etc etc. You’d think I’d have to file lots of these forms given who my clients are. Most of my US Citizen clients are also Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents however so are not affected owners. Out of 125 or so clients I have 4 (possibly 5) that have to file the form (2 foreign nationals renting out property they acquired here with S216 returns, 2 corporations that have rental properties and 1 B&B that is half business and half personal but owned by Canadian Citizens) None owe any taxes. The ones that would otherwise owe taxes due to having under used housing are all Canadian Citizens… I do have several clients with rental properties in the US that are not US Citizens that would get caught if places like Florida or Arizona decided to retaliate.
It’s not just non-residents: Trusts are being caught as well…think testamentary trusts holding property for the life of a spouse or child, alter-ego trusts holding property for the settlor, and the corps that own residential properties. The reality is that the Feds already know most of this, or can find it out. BC now has the Land Ownership Transparency Registry which has exactly the same information in it as I filed for someone there.
I am waiting for someone to announce that no Canadian need file the UHT forms. I have spent much time reading and studying and concluded that the only reason I would file any returns for any of my clients would be so I get paid. But I am not like the CPA firms that just decided to have every partnership file. Good for them - if they can get their clients to pay, think of all the extra billings. But I have a conscience. Following are some of my biggest issues:
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Partnerships - must be a business, with a view to making a profit. T776 reporting does not qualify as a business. My farm clients (husband and wife partnerships) don’t rent out the extra farm house to make a profit, but to recover costs. They may show a profit but it still is not business income, therefore exempt from UHT.
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On the UHT report, there is no place to indicate whether the property was rented, and for how much. There is no place to file for an exemption because the propertty was fully rented - if fully rented out there is no UH. Why should we report all fully UH?
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The form is so terrible. The first line for one section states that only certain people need fill out this section: but the first line of the detailed instructions immediately following state that “Everyone” must complete this information. Which statement is true?
I refuse to do any more work on this program until we have some reasonable clarification about who needs to file. This has been the biggest waste of time and created the greatest loss of sleep for me. Someone should be held accountable.
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I am sure I have missed some things, but, can I file the 2022 UHT’s for clients through represent a client on CRA website?
I have a married couple, land immigrants, with 3 rental properties, 1 couple Cdn, with one rental property. This, as previously mentioned, is the proverbial Cluster F$@(
Thank you,
Yes, the UHT’s can be submitted via RAC portal.
If they are landed immigrants are they not permanent residents and thus not generally subject to the rules?
My mistake, permanent residents. Landed immigrant is older terminology.