The minister responsible for the Canada Revenue Agency is weighing in as debate swirls online about whether a tenant can be held liable for their foreign landlord's unpaid taxes.
“I want to reassure Canadians that the Canada Revenue Agency does not intend to collect any portion of any non-resident landlords’ unpaid taxes from individual tenants,” read a statement released by Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday afternoon.
“It is incorrect to state otherwise.”
Bibeau said in her statement that she would work with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland “to provide absolute clarity on the law and to ensure that tenants have the certainty they need and deserve.”
I have a modest proposal, well it's quite radical but I like it. If a landlord defaults on property taxes for long enough, we should just transfer the property to the tenant.
Maintenance costs naturally increase over time, especially as property depreciates and especially when we're talking about North American buildings which tend to be built for initial cost rather than long term resilience.