The Underused Housing Tax (UHT) is an annual 1% tax on the ownership of vacant or underused housing in Canada that took effect on January 1, 2022. The tax usually applies to non-resident, and non-Canadian owners. In some situations, however, it also applies to Canadian owners.
Owners have to file a UHT-2900 Underused Housing Tax Return and Election Form for each property in Canada for which all the following conditions are met on December 31 of a calendar year:
For details on what types of residential properties are subject to the Underused Housing Tax, see the CRA’s Introduction to the Underused Housing Tax page.
Excluded owners of a residential property in Canada have no obligations or liabilities under the Underused Housing Tax Act. If a person is not an excluded owner, they are called an affected owner and they have obligations under the Underused Housing Tax Act for their residential property in Canada.
Affected owners face significant penalties for failing to file the return when it is due. Affected owners who are individuals are subject to a minimum penalty of $5,000. Affected owners that are corporations are subject to a minimum penalty of $10,000.
For details on who qualifies as an excluded or affected owner, and on filing exemptions, see the CRA’s Underused Housing Tax page.
We will make form UHT-2900 available in the TaxCycle Forms module in an upcoming release.
You can then print it from TaxCycle and mail it to the CRA. The CRA does not offer a method to file the UHT-2900 electronically from tax software.
If you wish to file the form electronically, you can do so by completing the CRA’s web-based form or through CRA My Account or My Business Account.