There is an interesting Superior Court case out of BC to report, involving residential real estate and tax law.
Buried in the paperwork of a real estate deal is a clause about the seller being a resident of Canada for Income tax purposes. The seller needs to sign or initial next to same.
Apparently, this links to an issue of capital gains tax law, i.e. if the seller is truly not a Canadian resident, he/she/it should pay full capital gains tax.
In any event, many of the speculators in the Vancouver market have not been resident Canadians, but have been signing real estate documents as if they are.
This has lead to the government losing out on tax revenue.
That has lead inexorably to the issue of who else could be liable for that tax if it cannot be collected from the overseas seller.
Guess what, the potential pool of people potentially liable from this court case include the real estate agent and the lawyer- the theory being that they have to take at least some steps to satisfy themselves that the person signing that statement that he/she/it is a resident (and thus subject to a less draconian tax scheme), truly is a resident of Canada.
Just when you thought it would be fun to be a realtor in Vancouver.