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Foreign Buyer Tax Calculator — Ontario's 25% Applies to the Whole Purchase, BC's 20% Does Not
Two Canadian provinces charge a foreign buyer tax, and the five-point gap between their headline rates is the least important thing about them. What decides the bill is what each province taxes: Ontario taxes the entire transaction no matter how small the foreign share, British Columbia taxes that share and nothing else.
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
Your purchase
Ontario taxes the value of the consideration — normally the agreement price. BC taxes fair market value, usually the same figure in an arm's length sale.
Only Ontario and British Columbia levy a foreign buyer tax. BC's applies in five regional districts only; inside the City of Toronto a municipal 10% sits on top of Ontario's 25%.
Only two provinces levy a foreign buyer tax, and in BC it depends on the regional district.
25% NRST, province-wide, charged on the whole transaction.
Toronto charges its own 10% speculation tax on top of Ontario's 25%.
One foreign national, foreign corporation or taxable trustee on title is enough to trigger it. BC then taxes only that buyer's registered share; Ontario taxes the whole price.
One foreign transferee out of several is enough to trigger the tax.
This changes the bill enormously in BC and not at all in Ontario.
Ontario only. The tax can be refunded in full if the buyer becomes a permanent resident within four years — but it is claimed after closing, so the full amount is still due on the day.
Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) · Ontario
C$250,000.00
25% of C$1,000,000 · all figures in Canadian dollars (CAD)
Who actually owes it
Every transferee is liable for the full C$250,000.00. If the foreign entity or taxable trustee does not pay, Ontario requires the other transferees to — including a Canadian citizen or permanent resident on the same title. Ontario states this in those terms on its own NRST page.
How this figure is built
Ontario does not prorate the NRST. Where any one transferee is a foreign entity or a taxable trustee, the tax applies to 100% of the value of the consideration regardless of the share that transferee acquires, and every transferee — including Canadian citizens and permanent residents on the same title — is liable for it.
Only the City of Toronto levies a municipal speculation tax. Mississauga, Markham, Vaughan, Brampton, Hamilton and the rest of Ontario charge the provincial 25% and nothing municipal, so this result carries no municipal layer. The boundary is the city's, not the metro area's.
All figures in Canadian dollars (CAD). Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax is 25% of the value of the consideration, province-wide, effective 25 October 2022, and is not prorated to the foreign transferee's interest — read at ontario.ca on 2 September 2026, page last updated 4 May 2026. British Columbia's additional property transfer tax is 20% of the foreign buyer's proportionate share of fair market value in the Capital, Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver, Central Okanagan and Nanaimo regional districts, and does not apply on Tsawwassen First Nation treaty lands — read at gov.bc.ca on 2 September 2026, page last updated 20 June 2025. Not modelled: the City of Toronto's separate 10% Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax, and the federal prohibition on purchases by non-Canadians, which is a ban rather than a tax. No other Canadian province levies a foreign buyer surcharge. This is not legal or tax advice.
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The rule that costs the most money is not the rate
Ontario's Non-Resident Speculation Tax is 25% of the value of the consideration, province-wide, at that rate since 25 October 2022. British Columbia's additional property transfer tax is 20% of fair market value in five regional districts. Set side by side, those look like near neighbours. They are not.
Ontario, in the province's own words
The NRST “is not prorated to the interest acquired by the foreign national”. Ontario's page works the example itself: where a transfer is made to three transferees, one of whom is a foreign entity acquiring a 33% share, the NRST applies to 100% of the value of the consideration.
British Columbia does the exact opposite, in its own words: 20% “on the fair market value of your proportionate share”.
So the arithmetic diverges the moment more than one name goes on title — which is most of the purchases people search this question about. A Canadian buying with a foreign spouse, a family adding a parent to the deed, two siblings where one has not yet landed: all of these are ordinary, and in Ontario all of them trigger the full 25%.
The same C$1,000,000 home, the same foreign buyer, five different shares
| Foreign share on title | Ontario NRST (CAD) | BC specified area (CAD) | BC elsewhere (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | C$250,000.00 | C$200,000.00 | C$0.00 |
| 50% | C$250,000.00 | C$100,000.00 | C$0.00 |
| 33% | C$250,000.00 | C$66,000.00 | C$0.00 |
| 10% | C$250,000.00 | C$20,000.00 | C$0.00 |
| 1% | C$250,000.00 | C$2,000.00 | C$0.00 |
All figures in Canadian dollars. The Ontario column never moves, because Ontario is not taxing the share — it is taxing the transaction, and the share is only the reason the transaction is caught. At a 1% foreign interest the Ontario buyer group owes C$250,000.00 of tax on an interest worth C$10,000.00. On the same facts in Metro Vancouver the bill is C$2,000.00. These figures exclude the base provincial transfer tax, which is payable as well: C$16,475.00 in Ontario and C$18,000.00 in British Columbia on a C$1,000,000 purchase. Rates read 2 September 2026.
The Canadian co-purchaser owes it too
This is the part that is almost never said out loud. Ontario states that each transferee is liable for any NRST payable, and that if the foreign entity or taxable trustee does not pay it, the other transferees will be required to. A Canadian citizen who adds a non-resident parent to a deed for family reasons has not just created a C$250,000 tax on a C$1,000,000 home — they have made themselves personally liable for it.
British Columbia's additional tax attaches to the foreign buyer's share, so the exposure is bounded by that share. The two provinces are not doing a stronger and a weaker version of the same thing; they are doing different things.
Where the BC tax actually applies
“British Columbia charges foreign buyers 20%” is wrong for most of British Columbia by land area. The additional property transfer tax applies in these five regional districts and nowhere else in the province:
- Capital Regional District
- Fraser Valley Regional District
- Metro Vancouver Regional District
- Regional District of Central Okanagan
- Regional District of Nanaimo
Tsawwassen First Nation treaty lands, although inside Metro Vancouver, are excluded. Ontario draws no such line: the NRST applied only in the Greater Golden Horseshoe until 30 March 2022 and has been province-wide ever since, which is why this calculator offers no Ontario region selector — one would imply a distinction the province stopped making four years ago.
What gets you out of it
Both provinces exempt certain buyers outright, and the exemptions are status tests rather than value tests — there is no threshold to compute, so the calculator names them instead of pretending to price them.
Ontario
Provincial nominee
A foreign national confirmed as a nominee under the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program at the time of purchase.
Protected person
A foreign national on whom protected person status has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Spouse of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
A foreign national purchasing with a spouse who is a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, nominee or protected person.
British Columbia
BC Provincial Nominee Program confirmation
A foreign national confirmed under the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program is exempt, for a principal residence only, and the exemption can be used once.
Qualifying Canadian-controlled limited partnership
Property acquired through a qualifying Canadian-controlled limited partnership is exempt where the programme's requirements are met.
Anyone exempt from the general property transfer tax
A transfer exempt from the base property transfer tax is also exempt from the additional 20%.
Mutual fund trusts, REITs and SIFT trusts
Mutual fund trusts, real estate investment trusts and specified investment flow-through trusts are outside the additional tax.
Ontario alone offers a rebate that depends on what happens after closing: the NRST may be refunded in full if the transferee becomes a permanent resident of Canada within four years of registration. The calculator shows that amount as refundable rather than netting it off the headline, because the money still has to be at the lawyer's office on the closing date.
What this calculator does not model, and why
Toronto's Municipal Land Transfer Tax. The City of Toronto's 10% Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax is now modelled — set the Toronto question above and the calculator stacks it on Ontario's 25%, for a combined 35% of the purchase price. What is still outside this page is Toronto's separate Municipal Land Transfer Tax, which a Toronto buyer also pays on the same closing. Add it from the Canadian land transfer tax calculator. A Toronto result here is a floor, and the page says so rather than presenting it as a closing total.
The federal prohibition on purchases by non-Canadians. It is a ban, not a tax. Where it bites, the purchase does not happen at a higher price — it does not happen. There is no dollar figure to put in a cost calculator, and anyone caught by it needs legal advice before any of this arithmetic matters.
Annual vacancy taxes. Those are charged every year for holding a property, not once for buying one, and they stack on top of each other in a way that needs its own model — see the Canadian vacant home tax calculator. For the base transfer tax on its own across all ten provinces, the Canadian land transfer tax calculator is the right tool; for everything else on a BC or Ontario closing statement, the BC closing costs calculator and the Ontario closing costs calculator price the rest of the bill. All free, all browser-side, no signup on any of them.
Buying elsewhere in Canada?
Eight provinces charge no foreign buyer tax at all
Only Ontario and British Columbia levy one. Quebec bands its transfer duty by municipality instead; Alberta charges no transfer tax whatsoever.
Methodology
Both rates, both proration rules, the liability rule and both exemption lists were read at the issuing provincial government's own page on 2 September 2026 — ontario.ca for the NRST and gov.bc.ca for the additional property transfer tax. No aggregator, no law firm summary and no US source was used, and none could have been: this levy has no American analogue to borrow a figure from. Five hand-worked examples in Canadian dollars, each naming its province and including two proration edge cases (a 33% interest and a 1% interest in Ontario), are written out in the header of src/lib/calculators/ca/foreign-buyer-tax.ts so they can be checked without running the code.
Nothing on this page is estimated. Every figure is a published statutory rate. The two provinces are modelled separately and never averaged, because an average of 25%-of-everything and 20%-of-a-share is a number that is wrong for every buyer in both provinces. Where a rule could not be verified at a government source it is named as unmodelled in the open. The Toronto municipal 10% was the case that mattered most, and it was carried as unmodelled from 2 September 2026 until the rate, its effective date, its base and its rebate were read at the City of Toronto's own pages on 5 September 2026 — two independent City pages, agreeing, before a single digit went into the engine.
All figures are in Canadian dollars and labelled C$ or CAD throughout, including the table above and the structured data. The calculator runs entirely in your browser; nothing is collected, stored or emailed, and there is no signup. This is not legal or tax advice — your lawyer or notary computes the tax that actually appears on your statement of adjustments.
Sources
- Government of Ontario — Non-Resident Speculation Tax (25% effective October 25, 2022; province-wide; not prorated to the foreign transferee's interest; each transferee jointly liable; permanent resident rebate within four years). Page last updated May 4, 2026. Re-read 2026-09-05 alongside the City of Toronto sources below, because B-188's unblock condition required the provincial and municipal reads on the same day; the rate, base, proration rule and rebate were unchanged from the 2026-09-02 read. — checked 2026-09-05
- City of Toronto — Municipal Land Transfer Tax & Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax, Rates & Fees (MNRST 10% of the property purchase amount; "Effective January 1, 2025, the City adopted item 2024.EX11.1 – Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax on Foreign Buyers of Residential Property"; "MNRST applies in addition to the MLTT"). — checked 2026-09-05
- City of Toronto — Municipal Land Transfer Tax & Municipal Non-Resident Speculation Tax, programme information ("10 per cent will apply for foreign buyers on the purchase price of certain residential properties"; base is "land (full purchase price) which contains at least one and not more than six single family residences"; multi-residential of more than six units, agricultural, commercial and industrial land excluded). Read as an independent second confirmation of the rate and effective date, per B-201. — checked 2026-09-05
- City of Toronto — MLTT & MNRST Rebate Opportunities (MNRST rebate where a foreign national becomes a permanent resident of Canada within four years of the purchase; "Applications for the rebate must be received within 90 days of becoming a permanent resident of Canada"; the property must have been the principal residence until the application). — checked 2026-09-05
- Government of British Columbia — Additional property transfer tax (20% of the foreign buyer's proportionate share of fair market value; five specified regional districts; Tsawwassen First Nation treaty lands excluded). Page last updated June 20, 2025. — checked 2026-09-02
- Government of Ontario — Calculating land transfer tax (the provincial bracket rates used for the base-tax comparison on this page) — checked 2026-08-21
- Government of British Columbia — Property transfer tax (the general bracket rates used for the base-tax comparison on this page) — checked 2026-08-21
Frequently asked questions
What is the foreign buyer tax in Canada in 2026?
There is no national foreign buyer tax. Two provinces levy one. Ontario charges a 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax on the value of the consideration, province-wide, at a rate that has been 25% since 25 October 2022. British Columbia charges a 20% additional property transfer tax on the foreign buyer's proportionate share of fair market value, and only in the Capital, Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver, Central Okanagan and Nanaimo regional districts. Every other province charges nothing of this kind. Separately, the City of Toronto adds a 10% municipal speculation tax of its own, which this calculator does not model.
If only one buyer is a foreign national, is the Ontario NRST prorated to their share?
No. Ontario states that the NRST is not prorated to the interest acquired by the foreign national, and gives this example: where a transfer is made to three transferees, one of whom is a foreign entity acquiring a 33% share, the NRST applies to 100% of the value of the consideration. On a C$1,000,000 Ontario home that is C$250,000 CAD, not the C$82,500 CAD a prorated tax would produce. Ontario also makes each transferee liable for the whole amount, so a Canadian citizen or permanent resident on the same title can be required to pay it if the foreign transferee does not.
How much is the BC foreign buyer tax on a C$1,000,000 home in Vancouver?
C$200,000 CAD for a sole foreign buyer taking the whole title — 20% of C$1,000,000 of fair market value — on top of C$18,000 CAD of general property transfer tax. British Columbia prorates the additional tax to the share registered on title, so a foreign buyer taking a 33% interest alongside Canadian co-purchasers pays 20% of C$330,000, which is C$66,000 CAD. That is the opposite of Ontario's rule on identical facts.
Does the BC foreign buyer tax apply everywhere in British Columbia?
No, and this is the most common error in advice about it. The additional property transfer tax applies only in five regional districts: Capital, Fraser Valley, Metro Vancouver, Central Okanagan and Nanaimo. It does not apply on Tsawwassen First Nation treaty lands even though those sit inside Metro Vancouver. A foreign buyer purchasing in Kamloops, Prince George or most of the province's land area pays the general property transfer tax and no surcharge at all.
Can the foreign buyer tax be refunded?
Ontario may rebate the NRST in full where the transferee becomes a permanent resident of Canada within four years of the conveyance being registered. It is a rebate claimed after closing, not a reduction at closing, so the full amount must still be paid on the closing date. British Columbia has no permanent-residence rebate, but it exempts a foreign national already confirmed under the BC Provincial Nominee Program at the time of purchase, for a principal residence, once. Both provinces also exempt certain transfers outright, including — in Ontario — a foreign national purchasing with a spouse who is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
Is the foreign buyer tax the same as the ban on foreign home purchases?
No. The federal prohibition on the purchase of residential property by non-Canadians is a ban, not a tax: where it applies, the purchase is not permitted rather than surcharged, so it has no dollar figure and cannot appear as a line in a cost calculator. The provincial foreign buyer taxes are charged on purchases that are lawful. Anyone caught by both needs legal advice before the taxes matter at all.
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Cost ranges and rates here are checked against contractor quotes and published industry data. If a number still looks off, email Support@RealCostIQ.com and we'll review and fix it.