Government tax on your empty bedroom borders on Communism 🏡

cz1635
Sep 8
6 min read

Updated: Oct 2

"Empty Bedroom Tax": Another Unfair, Divisive Proposal like "Home Equity Taxes"

In an attempt to tackle housing shortages, some governments and activist groups are pushing a controversial, new tax on homes with unused or "empty" bedrooms. While the idea may seem like a way to encourage more efficient use of housing, it has sinister Communistic overtones. A recent article from the Financial Post's Canadian tax expert Kim Moody argues that this so-called "empty bedroom tax" is also unfair to vulnerable seniors and unlikely to solve housing problems.

What this will do is force more seniors into homelessness as they can't pay rising taxes. Or, is this part of the plan for governments to steal your home equity?

Even more disturbing are the very clear signals of encroaching "full-blown" Communism: government control over personal property use, plus removal of any private sector capital from the real estate market, say experts like Queen's University Law professor Bruce Pardy. Polling shows more young people are favouring Communism and central government control. "The education system doesn’t tell students how communism killed 148 million people between 1917 and 1987. Instead, it rails against capitalism which created the highest standard of living within the most peaceful and free nations on earth," notes Cory Morgan in the Western Standard. He furthered "the most effective voices against communism were those who had directly endured it. They counseled their children about what they suffered and what must never happen again."

As someone who grew up in the Communist regime in Bulgaria, current Simon Fraser University Real Estate Finance Professor Andrey Pavlov, advises Canadians should not take lightly the growing Marxist influence in housing policies of our governments. Where he grew up, government-controlled housing called panelkis, were "shoddily-constructed ....apartment towers made from prefabricated concrete panels that allocated a mere 100 square feet of living space per inhabitant. As with everything built during the Communist years, they were a complete disaster,” says Pavlov. “Not only were they depressing to live in, but ... – there were gaps between the prefabricated panels and water constantly leaked into the units. Even brand new they were falling apart.”

Besides the terrible quality and cramped conditions, he said housing was awarded based on corruption rather than need. The most desirable units – those with a view, or perhaps fewer leaks – went to Communist Party members and their families. “That’s what you get when the government provides all the housing,” Pavlov warns. “The world has tried such a system many times before and it has failed every time. To see it proposed here again in Canada is very disappointing,” notes Pavlov in the Goodman Report.

Communist Russia forced shared housing with strangers: owners got one room In Russia, "after the Revolution of 1917, the new Bolshevik government issued an order to optimize housing. Big apartments, especially in central Moscow and St. Petersburg, were converted into communal apartments. Owners had only one room for their family and belongings, sharing the rest with strangers and their families. Each resident had only about 30 minutes each day to use the bathroom...to wash himself, his children, as well as his clothes." - Russia Beyond This reminds one of the time the former Victoria, BC Mayor Lisa Helps suggested those with empty bedrooms should offer them to the homeless, but admitted she couldn't do so herself due to having "confidential" files at home. Her idea did not get broad support.

Punishing Vulnerable Seniors

The empty bedroom tax typically targets people who live in larger homes but have unoccupied rooms, often seniors or families with grown children. The premise behind the tax is that these individuals are not using all the available space and should be taxed for it or even forced to rent it out. Proponents argue that this would encourage people to downsize, freeing up larger homes for families in need. Of course, these proponents leave out necessary facts like seniors having few viable options to downsize to (like rentals or condos). We still have a chronic home shortage with stalled construction on any new homes in our major cities like Toronto and Vancouver. This new empty bedroom tax is similar to the federal home equity tax that also sought to punish seniors with thousands of dollars in new taxes each year (a wealth tax).

*Seniors who own homes also struggle on low incomes. Taxing people out of their homes is not the answer to a home shortage.*

News flash: despite their repeated denials, the federal government is still secretly studying an annual home equity tax.

None of these existing or proposed taxes fix a shocking home shortage caused by mass, unchecked immigration. You can't bring millions of people a year into Canada annually and build only a little over 200,000 homes for them. Simple math. A former BC Government chief of staff to various Premiers, Don Wright wrote in his Substack: "I have made no secret of my belief that the immigration policy of the Trudeau government was the single most significant Canadian public policy blunder since at least the 1930s."

So far, Prime Minister Carney's new federal government appears to be continuing unchecked immigration as home builders fall even further behind. Should governments force people to rent out their bedrooms to strangers? Many people living in these homes are not merely hoarding space—they may simply need the room for other purposes, like home offices or guest rooms for visiting family or friends. For seniors, moving to a smaller home (often in another community) could be impractical due to health issues, local doctor/hospital access, limited mobility, or emotional attachment to their long-time residence where family and friends who support them are close by. Should governments force them to rent out a room to a stranger?

Unfair Financial Burden

The worst part of an empty bedroom tax is that it places a financial burden on individuals who may not have the means to pay for it. Many of those affected by such a tax are not wealthy. Often, they're seniors on fixed incomes or would struggle under a heavier tax load. A United Way study found "half of BC seniors have after-tax incomes below $32,000." And while 80% of seniors do own homes...one in four seniors have incomes below $21,800. The idea that they should be penalized for having an extra room—out of necessity than by choice, seems unjust and inequitable.

The tax also doesn’t account for diverse household situations. A family with young children might need a spare room for growing kids, while an older couple may have one bedroom unused simply because one of them has passed away.

Taxing People into Homelessness Is Not the Solution Simply taxing people out of their homes won’t automatically create affordable housing options in our major cities. Governments have applied various "vacancy taxes" at all levels, civic, provincial and federal to no avail. Here's a good example: the federal government's Underused Housing Tax cost more to manage than it collected in revenues. The 2022 revenue of $49 million was far less than the originally projected $200 million. But administrative costs — $59 million, were higher. While popular with voters, plain to see.

Governments have applied "vacancy taxes" at all levels, civic, provincial and federal to no avail. That's because taxes don't fix a home shortage caused by mass, unchecked immigration. You can't bring millions of people a year into Canada annually and build only a little over 200,000 homes for them. Simple math.

As the Financial Post writer noted: "A good and sound taxation system, as espoused by the Scottish economist Adam Smith in his 1776 book, The Wealth of Nations, should have four basic tenets:

🏡 Equity: contributions should be fair and proportional to a person’s ability to pay.

🏡 Certainty: the system should have rules that are clear, predictable and not left to arbitrary discretion.

🏡 Convenience: the timing and system of payment should be convenient for taxpayers.

🏡 Economy: the costs to administer and collect taxes should be minimized and not consume the revenue it raises."

Rather than penalizing individuals with empty rooms, it’s more important for governments to consider proven solutions that stimulate building of more affordable homes. A property tax professional, Paul Sullivan of Ryan ULC, released an educational video that helps provide context on the real reasons behind all these taxes —funding a growing and greedy government bureaucracy that admitted it had no viable housing plan.