Ontario to query citizenship, residency for real estate purchases starting Monday

Starting Monday , home buyers in Ontario will have to provide more information about their citizenship and place of residence when they buy a piece of real estate anywhere in the province. The government first announced the news in last fall's economic statement, but the new rules come into effect on April 24. Starting then, anyone who buys a piece of land in the province that contains between one and six single-family homes — or agricultural land — must fill out the Prescribed Information for Purposes of Section 5.0.1 Form — one more piece of paper in the sea of red tape associated with real estate. The form will be incorporated with documents that govern the payment of land-transfer taxes, which is a tax everyone in the province must pay when any property changes hands. (First-time buyers, however, don't pay the tax on the first $368,000 of a home's purchase price and can receive a rebate of up to $4,000 after that.) How it works: explaining Toronto's land ...