{"id":441742,"date":"2022-03-29T14:31:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T18:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/?p=441742"},"modified":"2022-03-29T16:26:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T20:26:06","slug":"nova-scotia-to-introduce-tax-measures-targeting-non-resident-property-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/news\/industry-news\/nova-scotia-to-introduce-tax-measures-targeting-non-resident-property-owners\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia to introduce tax measures targeting non-resident property owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative government’s first budget includes tax measures aimed at about 27,000 non-resident property owners.<\/p>\n<p>Two measures introduced in Tuesday’s budget are projected to raise $81 million to help make housing more available in the province by taxing cottage owners and others who live outside the province.<\/p>\n<p>Effective April 1, a transfer tax of 5% of the property’s value will be levied on non-residents of the province who buy a property and do not move to the province within six months of the closing date.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, property taxes of $2 per $100 of assessed value of residential properties owned by non-residents will be levied. The tax won’t apply to buildings with more than three units or those rented to Nova Scotians year round.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: 1em 0;padding: 1em;background-color: #e4eef6\"><em>Want more immediate, memorable insights?<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/soundbites\/economy\/canadian-oil-still-a-solid-investment-in-the-age-of-climate-concerns\/\">Listen to this Soundbites episode<\/a>, featuring Zeba Mirza of Foyston, Gordon & Payne.<\/em><\/div>\n<p>A growing scarcity of lower-cost housing has emerged as an issue in the province, as lower-income Nova Scotians have struggled to afford rising rents, and the province’s population topped one million people. The budget allocates $15 million for affordable housing programs and $2.7 million for new rent supplements.<\/p>\n<p>The Progressive Conservative government is forecasting a $506.2-million deficit in its first budget as it focuses on a campaign pledge to spend heavily on the province’s ailing health system.<\/p>\n<p>The $13.2-billion budget for 2022-23 tabled on Tuesday contains $5.7 billion for health care, an increase of $413.4 million compared to last year’s spending.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Minister Allan MacMaster said in his budget address that it’s an economic plan “for all the people and their families who waited for a doctor, a surgery, a nursing home room, a place to live.”<\/p>\n<p>It also contains the largest projected deficit since 2013-14. The red ink is just beginning, with the government estimating another $418-million deficit coming in 2023-24, and further deficits in the following two years.<\/p>\n<p>MacMaster echoed a theme the Premier Tim Houston frequently emphasized during the summer election campaign, saying in his speech that the province can no longer solve its health-care problems by “tinkering at the margins.”<\/p>\n<p>The increased spending for health includes $22.9 million to continue delivery of Covid-19 vaccines and $17.5 million to perform an additional 2,500 surgeries.<\/p>\n<p>Long-term care is also getting millions to help increase staffing levels, including $66.3 million to boost the wages of continuing care assistants.<\/p>\n<p>“In the case of continuing care assistants, we’ve given a 23% [wage] increase, which will effectively mean a $9,000-a-year raise …. We hope the free training and increased wages will attract more people,” the finance minister told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The funding for retaining and attracting staff is aimed at reaching a new standard of at least 4.1 hours of one-on-one care for every long-term care resident.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, over 40% of the province’s record-setting $1.6-billion capital budget announced last Wednesday is being directed at health spending, with a major portion going to hospital redevelopment projects in Halifax and Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>The initiatives for mental health were smaller-ticket items, such as $3.4 million being added to expand virtual care services.<\/p>\n<p>There is no increase for the income assistance rate in the budget, despite rising prices for food and other necessities.<\/p>\n<p>The government is encouraging people under 30 to take up the skilled trades, with a commitment to provide personal income tax refunds for the first $50,000 earned by these workers. The program begins this year, and it’s anticipated to cost about $80 million in lost tax revenues in 2023-24.<\/p>\n<p>The budget notes that the Russia-Ukraine conflict could pose “wide and significant” risks for its projections of economic growth of 2.1% this year and 1.6% in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scarcity of lower-cost housing has emerged as an issue in the province<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2318,2312],"tags":[57655,2822,2874],"yst_prominent_words":[8627,105263,105262,105261,89706,74606,39839,11820,11801,11569,11548,11017,2170,6729,6461,6044,5152,5088,5081,4875],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441742"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441753,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441742\/revisions\/441753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441742"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=441742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}