Words and Phrases - "primary place of residence"
Underused Housing Tax Notice UHTN6 Exemption for Primary Place of Residence February 2023
Determination of primary place of residence
What is a primary place of residence
The CRA has guidelines and criteria under the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) to determine whether an individual’s residence is their primary place of residence. Similar guidelines and criteria may be used for the underused housing tax.
Generally, if you have more than one place of residence, the place of residence that is first in order of importance to you is your primary place of residence. A place of residence that is not first in order of importance to you is a secondary place of residence. For example, a secondary place of residence may be one that is used mainly for recreational purposes or that is occupied less often than another residence. If you are not a citizen or a permanent resident of Canada and your primary place of residence is outside Canada, any residential property that you own in Canada is generally considered to be a secondary place of residence, unless you can prove otherwise.
Example 1
- Re shift of primary residence to Halifax where 3-year work posting there (with offshore house leased out for this period).
Example 2
- Re parents with a primary residence outside Canada having a jointly-owned condo in Canada qualifying as a primary residence through their university-student child.
GST/HST Policy Statement P-228 Primary Place of Residence 30 March 1999
Summary of listed factual indicia
- Address listed for mailing, tax return, voting, school tax and telephone purposes.
- Location of personal effects.
- Any failure to occupy explained by specific frustrating event.
- Stated use in insurance policy.
- Disposition plan for previous residence.
- Where 2 residences, relative time spent, distance to work, level of amenities.
Ruling 1
A new house that the Smiths plan to move to once their children finish their elementary school year qualifies.
Ruling 2
Recreational seasonal residence does not qualify.
Ruling 3
Substantially renovated country house, which will be moved to from a small urban apartment when retirement occurs next year, qualifies.
Ruling 4
Canadian property, used by American couple on weekends and holidays in summer and fall, does not qualify.
Ruling 5
After getting new job in City 2, wife took up residence in (qualifying) new condo there, where she resided alone for 8 months before being joined by husband after first residence in City 1 was sold.
Parthiban v. The Queen, 2017 TCC 30 (Informal Procedure)
The Appellant and his wife were U.K. citizens and passport holders who sold their U.K. home, moved to Canada in 2011 with the status of visitors, and had all of their personal possessions shipped to Canada after they arrived. The Appellant entered into an agreement of purchase and sale for a new home in December 2011 in Markham, Ontario, which closed a year later, after which they occupied the home as their only residence. CRA denied his rebate application on the basis that the home could only be considered as a secondary place of residence since his status while in Canada when he agreed to buy it and when he moved in was that of a visitor. In rejecting this position and finding that the rebate was available, Boyle stated (at paras 18, 19):
[T]he requirement to be satisfied… is whether the housing unit was occupied as a place of residence. That is very distinct from either the buyer’s residence status in Canada for income tax law purposes, which is a characterization of the person’s status, or whether the buyer is lawfully present or resident in Canada for immigration law purposes….
… The use of the word “habituelle” in French…makes it even more clear and certain that the use of the word “primary” to qualify “place of residence” in English is not to suggest that the new housing rebate is only available to those who also have at least a second home also used as a place of residence.
He further stated (at para 32) that it was irrelevant that the Appellant’s established intention to have the home occupied as his family’s residence might have been rendered ineffectual by a deportation order.