08-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton extends deadline to avoid tax on vacant homes by a month
The city is giving stragglers another month to make declarations for Hamilton's new tax on
vacant homes
.
With 94 per cent of residential property owners meeting the original April 30 deadline, finance staff aim to encourage more to file their paperwork.
To do that, council has agreed to extend the vacant unit tax (VUT) declaration period to May 30.
The city will send letters to the remaining property owners next week, Mike Zegarac, general manager of finance and corporate services, said Wednesday.
'So one further effort for outreach.'
The VUT, which is meant to discourage vacant homes, is a one per cent tax on the assessed value of properties with six or fewer units that were vacant for more than 183 days the previous calendar year.
A number of exemptions apply. The properties of those who don't make declarations will be deemed vacant.
Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto also have taxes on empty homes.
There have been hiccups — including technological glitches, postal delays and overloaded phone lines — in Hamilton's maiden VUT rollout.
Council
has waived
the $250 penalty for tardiness.
And earlier this spring, the city held
drop-in clinics
to help residents fill out declarations while councillors also made efforts to assist constituents.
'There has been continuous improvement in terms of the process,' Zegarac said Wednesday.
An average of about 1,500 declarations per day have been received in the last 10 days of the initial declaration period.
With about 13,000 properties still outstanding, of those forms already submitted, just over 300 have been declared vacant, staff noted.
Initial payments for those on quarterly plans are due in June. An appeal process for those who missed the deadline or disputes for charges is to start in July.
For more information about the VUT, including how to make declarations, visit
.
