What if you missed the City of Ottawa Vacant Unit Tax Declaration Deadline?

A new tax that targets unoccupied residential properties had its first significant deadline on Thursday, March 16, 2023.

The City of Ottawa had received 311,000, or nearly 96%, of the total required submissions on Thursday morning, the first hard deadline.

The implementation of the vacant unit tax (VUT) is intended to deter homeowners from leaving their properties unoccupied in the midst of a housing crisis and to generate more revenue for the city to pay for affordable housing.

Unless they are eligible for one of the program's exemptions, owners of residential properties that were empty for more than 184 days in 2022 will be subject to an extra tax of 1% of the assessed value of their property.

For example, if the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) said that a house was worth $500,000, the property taxes would go up by $5,000.

However, those who fail to submit the necessary papers to register their property's occupancy or to specify which exemptions, if any, they are eligible for will also be subject to the tax.

The strict cutoff date for when properties are "deemed empty" is April 30. If residents didn't submit their VUT declarations by March 16 as required, they would typically be subject to a $250 late fee; however, for the first year of the program, that fee is not applicable.

The standard declaration deadline for the City of Ottawa Vacant Unit Tax of March 16, 2023, has now passed. Late declarations can still be submitted until April 30, 2023. The late declaration fee has been waived for 2023. If a declaration is not received by April 30, the property will be deemed vacant, and the Vacant Unit Tax will be charged on your final property tax bill in June.