Ottawa, ON – Jake Stewart, Conservative Shadow Minister for National Revenue, Matt Jeneroux, Conservative Shadow Minister for Housing, and Diversity and Inclusion, and Gérard Deltell, Conservative Shadow Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, released the following statement calling on the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to stop forcing Canadians to disclose home sales:

“The NDP-Liberal government can’t stop obsessing about a home equity tax.

“Despite the Liberals repeatedly claiming they are not considering a home equity tax on the floor of the House of Commons, the Prime Minister has been personally briefed on a $250,000 report studying, among other things, the viability of imposing just such a tax.

“In fact, they already laid the groundwork to collect revenue from Canadians’ home sales back in 2016 by requiring homeowners to report to the CRA the sale amount of their primary residences. For six years, the government has been gathering data points on Canadian home sales for no other reason than, in their words, ‘[to] improve compliance and administration of the tax system.’

“Canadians deserve an honest answer from this government on why the CRA ‘needs’ to continue to collect this information if there is no intention of using it one day to calculate a home equity tax on Canadian residences.

“Conservatives support a fair and common-sense tax code that doesn’t unfairly target Canadians. It’s time the NDP-Liberal government walked the walk rather than just talking the talk about denying their plans to implement a home equity tax. Introduce legislation that removes the requirement to report your primary home sale to the CRA and take the opportunity to put this issue to rest once and for all.”