Homebuyers winners in council tax fight; Land Transfer Tax Defeated

The Calgary Herald – Saturday, February 28, 2009
Calgary city council has narrowly defeated a proposal that would have seen a land transfer tax imposed on everyone selling their home. In a letter to the mayor and aldermen prior to the recent vote by council, the Calgary Real Estate Board and the Alberta Real Estate Association called the tax unfair. "It is essentially a home buyers’ tax and singles out a select group of individuals for taxation," says board president Bonnie
Wegerich. "It asks homebuyers to pay for municipal services which would benefit the entire community."
Council was considering asking the province to allow changes to the Municipal Government Act that would allow the city to collect a tax of at least one per cent on the sale of homes, with the money to help finance
affordable housing.