Land Owner Transparency Act Consultation

As part of its 30-Point Plan for Housing Affordability (PDF), the B.C. government is taking steps to end the hidden ownership of real estate to make sure people are paying their fair share of taxes.

Currently in B.C., people can hide their ownership behind numbered companies, offshore and domestic trusts, and corporations. This makes enforcement difficult.

To improve tax agencies’ ability to enforce laws, the B.C. government is proposing to collect information about beneficial ownership of land in a public registry. The registry would help give tax authorities and law enforcement the information they need to crack down on tax evasion, and identify tax fraud and money laundering. The public registry would be administered by the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia.

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