For your next move
What will the land transfer tax be on your next home?
The buyer pays this tax, not the seller. So if you are selling a longtime home, this is not a cost of selling. It is a cost of whatever you buy next, and it is due in cash on closing.
Ontario charges land transfer tax on every purchase in the province. Toronto charges a second one on top. Nowhere in York Region does, which is why the same house can cost thousands more in tax on one side of Steeles Avenue than the other.
Why there are two taxes
Ontario has charged land transfer tax province-wide for decades. In 2008 the City of Toronto was given the power to charge its own on top, and no other municipality in Ontario has that power. Not York Region, not Durham, nowhere.
The city tax is not a small surcharge. Up to two million dollars it uses the same brackets as the province, which means a Toronto purchase is taxed at roughly double. On a $1,000,000 home that is $16,475 in Ontario, and $32,950 in total if the home is in Toronto.
The Ontario brackets
| Portion of the price | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to $55,000 | 0.5% |
| $55,000 to $250,000 | 1.0% |
| $250,000 to $400,000 | 1.5% |
| $400,000 to $2,000,000 | 2.0% |
| Over $2,000,000 | 2.5% |
Toronto matches these up to two million and then climbs further, reaching 7.5% on the portion above twenty million. Those upper brackets almost never apply to the homes on this site, and the calculator handles them anyway.
What people forget
- It is cash, on closing. Land transfer tax cannot be added to a mortgage. It comes out of your own funds the day the deal closes, alongside the legal fees and the adjustments.
- It is separate from the HST. HST does not apply to a resale home. It does apply to a newly built one, and to the real estate fee on the sale you are making.
- A life lease or a co-op may be treated differently. Both are common choices for a next home and neither is a straightforward freehold purchase. Ask the lawyer before you assume this figure applies.
- Buying out a sibling's share of an estate home is a transfer too. Land transfer tax can apply to the share being bought, and this is one of the most common surprises in an estate.
The question worth asking before you fall in love with a neighbourhood
If you are weighing a condo in Toronto against one in Richmond Hill or Markham, ask your lawyer or ask us: "What is the total land transfer tax on each of these, side by side?"
On a $900,000 condo that difference is roughly fourteen thousand dollars, payable in cash on closing, and it is not something most people have factored in when they are comparing two floor plans.
Knowing the number early changes the shortlist
Most families work out what they will walk away with, then discover the closing costs on the next place afterward. We would rather you had both numbers at the start. Our net proceeds calculator handles the sale side, and this one handles the purchase.
This calculator is general information for Ontario, not legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for advice about your own purchase. It applies the Ontario Land Transfer Tax and City of Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and first-time buyer rebates current at the time of writing. Rates, brackets and rebates are set by the province and the city and can change. Rules differ for non-residents, for newly built homes, for farmland and commercial property, and for transfers between family members or out of an estate. Your lawyer calculates and remits the actual tax on closing. Sources: Ontario, Land Transfer Tax and City of Toronto, Municipal Land Transfer Tax. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract with a brokerage.