No. You do not have to file an Underused Housing Tax return or pay the tax for 2025 or any later year. Bill C-15, the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, received royal assent on 26 March 2026 and eliminated the UHT going forward. Your obligations for 2022, 2023 and 2024 are unchanged, and every provincial and municipal vacancy tax still applies.
Summary
- Gone for 2025 onward. New s.1.1 of the Underused Housing Tax Act: no tax payable for 2025 and subsequent calendar years. New s.6.1: no return required, “despite sections 7 and 10,” which means CRA cannot even demand one.
- Not gone for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Those returns are still due, the tax is still payable, and the penalties still apply.
- The Act itself survives until 1 January 2035. Repeal is enacted but not yet in force, so CRA keeps roughly a decade of runway to assess and collect the old years.
- Minimum late-filing penalties: CRA publishes $1,000 CAD for individuals and $2,000 CAD for corporations, reduced from $5,000 and $10,000 by Bill C-69 in June 2024.
- The point nobody makes: the federal repeal does not touch a single provincial or municipal vacancy tax. British Columbia raised its rate for 2026 and again for 2027. Guelph launched a brand new one in January 2026.
- CRA’s pages now carry the notice, but not consistently. As of 24 August 2026 both the UHT landing page and the filing-deadline page open with the elimination notice, while still describing the tax in the present tense and publishing an April 30 deadline further down.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Verify your own filing position with a Canadian tax professional before acting on any of it.
Table of Contents
- What Actually Happened, and When
- What You Still Owe for 2022 to 2024
- Why the Act Stays on the Books Until 2035
- The Vacancy Taxes That Did Not Go Away
- Alberta, Calgary and the Canmore Exception
- Who Is Still Exposed, and What to Check
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Actually Happened, and When
The Underused Housing Tax was a 1% annual federal tax on vacant or underused residential property, in force from 1 January 2022. It mostly targeted non-resident non-Canadian owners, but its filing net was far wider than its tax net, which is why so many Canadian owners of corporations, partnerships and trusts ended up filing returns showing nothing owing.
Budget 2025 killed it. The mechanism was Bill C-15 in the 45th Parliament, the Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, now cited as S.C. 2026, c. 3.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2022 | UHT takes effect |
| 20 June 2024 | Bill C-69 narrows the filing net and cuts minimum penalties |
| 4 November 2025 | Budget 2025 Notice of Ways and Means Motion proposes elimination |
| 18 November 2025 | Bill C-15 first reading |
| 26 February 2026 | House third reading |
| 26 March 2026 | Royal assent. Elimination becomes law. |
| 1 January 2035 | Scheduled repeal of the Act and Regulations |
The two provisions that did the work
Two sections were inserted into the Underused Housing Tax Act. Both are now in the consolidated statute, not merely in a bill.
1.1 No tax is payable under subsection 6(3) by a person in respect of a residential property for 2025 and subsequent calendar years.
6.1 Despite sections 7 and 10, a person is not required to file a return for a residential property for 2025 and subsequent calendar years.
Underused Housing Tax Act (Justice Laws), as amended by S.C. 2026, c. 3
The phrase worth noticing is “despite sections 7 and 10.” Section 7 is the filing obligation. Section 10 is the Minister’s power to demand a return from someone who has not filed one. Both are switched off for 2025 onward. A CRA request for a 2025 UHT return has no statutory basis.
CRA’s own guidance has not fully caught up
This is worth knowing before you go looking, because the government’s website will contradict itself.
CRA has now updated its guidance, and it is worth reading carefully rather than skimming. As of 24 August 2026 the main Underused Housing Tax landing page opens with the Royal Assent notice and the plain statement that “affected owners do not need to file a return or pay the tax for 2025 and subsequent calendar years.” The filing deadline page now carries the same banner. Both pages then continue to describe the UHT in the present tense as “an annual federal 1% tax” and to publish an April 30 deadline, because those statements remain true for 2022, 2023 and 2024. That is the source of most of the confusion still circulating: the notice and the old deadline sit on the same page, and a reader skimming for a due date will find one.
If a page you land on does not mention the March 2026 royal assent, you are reading stale guidance. Check the statute, not the summary.
What You Still Owe for 2022 to 2024
Everything. Both new provisions are expressly limited to “2025 and subsequent calendar years.” Nothing in S.C. 2026, c. 3 touches the filing obligation, the April 30 deadline, the payment deadline or the penalty section for the earlier years.
CRA states it directly: the requirement to file a UHT return and pay the tax still applies to the 2022, 2023 and 2024 calendar years.
The penalties, and which ones keep growing
The failure-to-file penalty is the greater of two amounts. Separating them matters, because they behave differently over time.
| Component | Amount | Does it grow? |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum, individual | $1,000 CAD | No. Flat. |
| Minimum, corporation | $2,000 CAD | No. Flat. |
| Percentage component | 5% of tax payable, plus 3% of tax payable per complete month late | Yes, plus interest |
An affected owner who owed no tax but failed to file faces the flat minimum, which does not compound. An owner who actually owed tax faces a percentage that has been accruing every month since the deadline.
The 31 December trap that has already sprung on all three years
This is the sharpest practical point in the entire story and it is almost never mentioned.
Under s.47(2) of the Act, if a return was not filed by 31 December of the following calendar year, the penalty is recalculated while ignoring several of the most commonly used exemptions, including the primary place of residence exemption and the qualifying occupancy exemption.
Every one of 2022, 2023 and 2024 is now well past its 31 December cutoff. So every outstanding return for those years already sits in the harsher penalty computation. Waiting has already cost whatever it was going to cost. That removes the main argument for continuing to wait.
Why the Act Stays on the Books Until 2035
The repeal of the Underused Housing Tax Act and its Regulations is enacted but not yet in force. It takes effect on 1 January 2035. Justice Laws currently carries it under “Amendments Not In Force,” which is itself proof the Act is still live today.
Finance Canada’s explanatory notes put it plainly: the Act is repealed effective 1 January 2035, following the cessation of the tax for 2025 and subsequent calendar years.
The logic is administrative. The 2022 to 2024 years are still live. CRA needs a statute to assess under, taxpayers need one to object and appeal under, records must be kept, and disputes can run for years. Delete the Act immediately and you delete the machinery for the years still in play. The 2035 date is roughly a decade of runway, not a signal that anything might come back.
The practical takeaway for an owner: “the UHT was repealed” is not a defence to a 2023 assessment. The tax was eliminated prospectively. The Act still exists.
The Vacancy Taxes That Did Not Go Away
Here is the assumption that will cost people money. The federal repeal does not touch a single provincial or municipal vacancy tax. Those are separate statutes, passed by separate governments, and several of them got more expensive in 2026.
CRA says so itself on the UHT landing page: these vacancy taxes were implemented by provincial and municipal governments, are different from the federal UHT, and must be assessed separately. Being exempt from one tells you nothing about the other.
British Columbia: the rate went up, twice
If you remember the BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax as 2% and 0.5%, update that. Those rates covered 2019 to 2025.
| Tax year | Foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners | Canadian citizens and permanent residents |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 to 2025 | 2% | 0.5% |
| 2026 | 3% | 1% |
| From 1 January 2027 | 4% | 1% |
The declaration deadline is 31 March each year for the previous tax year, payment is due the first business day in July, and the tax covers 59 communities. Every owner on title declares separately, so a couple owning jointly files two declarations.
The municipal taxes currently in force
| Municipality | Rate | How it works | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver Empty Homes Tax | 3% of assessed taxable value | Declaration per property | Early February |
| Toronto Vacant Home Tax | 3% of current value assessment | Every residential owner declares annually | 30 April |
| Ottawa Vacant Unit Tax | 1%, rising 1% per consecutive vacant year to a maximum of 5% | Every residential owner declares annually | Third Thursday in March |
| Hamilton Vacant Unit Tax | 1% | Every residential owner declares annually | 15 April, extended to 15 May |
| Windsor | 4% for 2026 onward | Complaint-driven, no universal declaration | n/a |
| Sault Ste. Marie | 4% | Complaint-driven | n/a |
| Guelph | 4%, effective 1 January 2026 | Complaint-driven | n/a |
Three details in that table trip people up. Ottawa’s vacancy test is “more than 184 days,” which is not the same as Toronto’s “more than six months.” Ottawa’s rate escalates the longer a unit sits empty and only resets after a full year of occupancy. And the three complaint-driven cities do not ask you to declare anything, which means the first contact you have with the tax may be an assessment.
Toronto is worth a note of its own. For the 2023 taxation year the city issued bills that wrongly captured occupied homes, drawing over 169,000 complaints, of which more than 165,000 were reversed. Council rebuilt the process rather than scrapping the tax, and declaration completion reached 99% for the following year. The tax is not going anywhere, and the declaration is mandatory even for your principal residence.
A vacant Vancouver home owned by a foreign national is hit by the municipal Empty Homes Tax and the provincial Speculation and Vacancy Tax at the same time. The federal layer is gone. The other two never were federal.
Alberta, Calgary and the Canmore Exception
Alberta has no provincial vacancy or speculation tax, and it has legislated against municipal ones. The Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2026 prohibits higher residential property tax sub-classes based on occupancy status for Albertans.
Calgary has no vacancy or empty homes tax. The City’s 2026 property tax structure has exactly three assessment classes: residential, non-residential and farm land. There is no occupancy subclass and no vacancy component in the tax calculation.
But do not conclude that Alberta is clear, because one Alberta municipality does have one.
Canmore’s Livability Tax Program is proceeding for the 2026 tax year. The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld it in March 2026, dismissing an appeal from a 2025 King’s Bench ruling. The provincial legislative change above narrowed its scope by exempting properties owned in whole or in part by individual Albertans, so it now falls primarily on out-of-province owners. If you own a Canmore property and live outside Alberta, this one is aimed at you. Confirm the rate, occupancy test and declaration deadline directly with the Town of Canmore.
One more Alberta nuance. Edmonton applies a derelict residential tax subclass, but that is condition-based, triggered by neglect and disrepair, not by occupancy. A well-maintained empty second home is not caught by it. It is not a vacancy tax and should not be planned for as one.
Who Is Still Exposed, and What to Check
Run this list against every residential property you hold, in any structure.
- Did you file UHT returns for 2022, 2023 and 2024? If you held property through a corporation, partnership or trust, you were probably an affected owner for at least 2022 even if no tax was payable. Confirm rather than assume.
- Are you certain you were an excluded owner? Bill C-69 widened the excluded owner definition starting with the 2023 calendar year, so the 2022 answer and the 2023 answer can legitimately differ for the same property.
- Do you own in a BC community covered by the Speculation and Vacancy Tax? The 31 March declaration is per owner, not per property, and missing it has consequences even when you would have qualified for an exemption.
- Do you own in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton or Vancouver? All four require an annual declaration from every residential owner, including for a home you live in full time. Failing to declare generally means the property is deemed vacant.
- Do you own in Windsor, Sault Ste. Marie or Guelph? Nothing to declare, which means nothing will remind you. You typically get 30 days to respond once contacted.
- Do you own in Canmore and live outside Alberta? The Livability Tax is live for 2026.
- Do you run any of these as short-term rentals? Then a different federal rule applies to you, and it has no reassessment deadline. See our companion piece on how CRA can deny every short-term rental expense you claimed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I still have to file the Underused Housing Tax return in 2026?
No, not for the 2025 calendar year or any year after it. Section 6.1 of the Underused Housing Tax Act, added by Bill C-15 with royal assent on 26 March 2026, provides that a person is not required to file a return for 2025 and subsequent calendar years. If you have unfiled returns for 2022, 2023 or 2024, those are still outstanding.
Was the Underused Housing Tax cancelled retroactively?
No. The elimination is prospective only, starting with the 2025 calendar year. Tax and filing obligations for 2022, 2023 and 2024 are unchanged, and CRA retains its assessment and collection powers for those years.
Can I still file a late UHT return for 2023?
Yes. Nothing in the elimination closed filing for the earlier years. Note that because the return was not filed by 31 December of the following calendar year, section 47(2) recalculates the penalty while ignoring several common exemptions, including the primary place of residence and qualifying occupancy exemptions. Speak to a tax professional about whether a voluntary disclosure is appropriate before filing.
What is the penalty for not filing a UHT return?
CRA publishes a minimum penalty of $1,000 CAD for individuals and $2,000 CAD for corporations, reduced from $5,000 and $10,000 by Bill C-69 in June 2024. The actual penalty is the greater of that minimum and 5% of the tax payable plus 3% of the tax payable for each complete month the return is late. Confirm your own figure with an advisor.
Does the UHT repeal cancel the BC Speculation and Vacancy Tax?
No. They are entirely separate taxes under separate statutes. British Columbia increased its rates to 3% for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners and 1% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents for the 2026 tax year, with a further increase to 4% for the first group from 1 January 2027. The declaration deadline is 31 March.
Does Alberta have a vacancy tax?
Alberta has no provincial vacancy or speculation tax and Calgary has no municipal one. However, Canmore’s Livability Tax Program is proceeding for the 2026 tax year, upheld by the Alberta Court of Appeal in March 2026, and now applies primarily to owners who are not individual Albertans. Edmonton’s derelict residential subclass is condition-based rather than occupancy-based and is not a vacancy tax.
Why does the CRA website still show an April 30 filing deadline?
It does say so, at the top of both the landing page and the filing deadline page, as of 24 August 2026. What confuses people is that both pages then go on to describe the tax in the present tense and to publish an April 30 deadline, because those statements still apply to the 2022, 2023 and 2024 years. Read the notice at the top before you read the deadline below it, and rely on the consolidated statute where the two seem to conflict.
The Bottom Line
One federal filing obligation ended. Nothing else did. If the UHT repeal is the only thing you have registered this year, you are holding an out-of-date picture of your own exposure, and it is out of date in the wrong direction: British Columbia raised its rate, Guelph added a new tax in January, and Canmore’s survived a court challenge.
The owners who get caught are rarely the ones who ignored the rules. They are the ones who heard “the vacancy tax was cancelled” and stopped reading.
Build the System Before the Deadline Finds You
Multi-property owners miss declarations because the deadlines live in seven different places and none of them send a reminder. That is a systems problem, not a discipline problem.
Wise Media builds the operational infrastructure property businesses run on, from the direct booking website to the reporting layer behind it. Take a look at our website packages or growth packages, and when you are ready, start with our intake form and we will scope it against what you actually own.
Sources: Underused Housing Tax Act (Justice Laws); Bill C-15 (45-1), LEGISinfo; CRA, Underused Housing Tax; Province of British Columbia, Speculation and Vacancy Tax rates. Rates and deadlines change. Verify against the primary source before acting.