Many Toronto homeowners are suddenly being confronted with thousands of dollars in unexpected vacant home taxes this month after the declaration deadline — which they say was not made clear by the City — came and went.

The levy, which was passed in 2021 and kicked off at the beginning of 2022, requires those who own property in the city to confirm whether they or someone else is living in their house, condo, or townhouse. If it is sitting empty, a municipal tax (of one per cent of the home's value for the 2023 taxation year, and three per cent for 2024) applies.

The idea is to charge those contributing to the housing crisis by sitting idly on much-needed units, and also ideally discourage at least some buyers from purchasing up usable housing as an investment with no plans to live there or make it available to renters.

But, it seems that some of those being penalized with the tax shouldn't be.

Heads up @cityoftoronto home owners…if you didn’t file your vacant home report before March 9 you will receive the tax bill any day now.

Received mine today and needless to say I was a little surprised to see a $16k bill. 🤯

You can file to amend but will owe $21 “admin fee”

— JT (@Jeffdthompson) April 4, 2024

Social media is abuzz with complaints this week from owners who either occupy their own residence or rent it out long-term, yet have gotten hit with bills in the thousands.

The reason is the passed deadline, which some are arguing is too easy to miss — and which the City itself has admitted leads to tens of thousands of units being declared vacant by default when they may not actually be.

There is so much OUTRAGE over the Vacant Property Tax - 125,000 Toronto homeowners have been HIT with a FOUR figure new tax on their property

Problem is those 125,000 homes are NOT vacant - yet they are told they have to pay a FOUR figure new tax on their property

Complete mess

— G.T. Lem 林 家 聰 (@gtlem) April 4, 2024

The tax has been touted as a success for all of the revenue it has garnered for the City, but in a fall 2023 status update suggesting that it be raised, staff admitted that a whopping 44,902 properties had failed to provide a declaration for the 2022 tax year and were thus deemed empty, whether they were or not.

This is compared to the mere 2,336 owners who had actually declared their homes vacant at the time of the report.

Vacant home tax

Many people have received this today. I have not received a letter to declare my home. I've been living here for 17 years. Why now are canadian getting hit with this bullshit tax. They should know which homes are vacant. #TrudeauMustGo#oliviachow must go

— Let's Go Brandon (@Badman_k20) April 4, 2024

This year, the City decided to extend the deadline to submit vacancy status from February 29 to March 15 to "give homeowners every opportunity to make their declaration before VHT Notices of Assessment are mailed," as only around 63 per cent of affected residents had filed declarations.

But some people are saying they never received a letter asking them to declare or notifying them of the deadline. And, a few of those trying to resolve the issue are finding it unnecessarily difficult.

@311Toronto - been trying to get through to discuss the vacant home tax and yet no one answers and I get constantly hung up on - put me on hold and I’ll wait until the next available rep is free! My unit is not vacant - I filled out my form please help!

— Victoria (@VBorgacci) April 4, 2024

Many are expressing particular concern for seniors, who can be more likely to miss or misunderstand digital correspondence, which is all that some residents say that they received to let them know the deadline was coming up.

One person stated that they received one single email from the City about the impending deadline to declare, which they didn't see, and which they initially dismissed as a scam.

Another pointed out that the filing process, which is online, has left many older homeowners in the dark.

It sounds like a scam by the city. How can they not send out mail like they do for all other things? And especially for the seniors who are not often tech savvy. This should be a class action lawsuit.

— Syrous_pl (@SyrousP) April 4, 2024

Those interested in disputing their vacant home status can file a notice of complaint on the City of Toronto website, for which there is a small administrative fee.