Land Transfer Tax Calculator

It is marginal, like income tax — each band of the price is taxed at its own rate, not the whole price at one rate. In Ontario the bands run from 0.5% on the first $55,000 up to 2.5% on amounts above $2 million.

Buy inside the City of Toronto and you pay twice: the provincial tax plus a municipal land transfer tax on a near-identical scale. On a $1 million Toronto home that is roughly $16,475 provincially and about the same again municipally — over $32,000 in tax alone.

That single fact is why buyers in Pickering, Vaughan and Oshawa save five figures at closing versus an identical purchase across the city line.

Ontario refunds up to $4,000, which fully covers the tax on homes up to about $368,000 and reduces it above that. Toronto adds a separate municipal rebate of up to $4,475. A first-time buyer purchasing in Toronto can claim both.

To qualify you must be at least 18, intend to occupy the home within nine months, and never have owned a home anywhere in the world. Your spouse's ownership history counts too, if you were spouses at the time.

British Columbia takes a different approach with a full exemption below a threshold and a phase-out band above it. Alberta and Saskatchewan charge no land transfer tax, so there is nothing to rebate.

Land transfer tax is due on closing day, in cash, through your lawyer. It cannot be added to your mortgage. This is the item that most often catches buyers who budgeted a down payment and nothing else.

Quebec is the exception: its transfer duty arrives as a bill weeks or months after closing, which is a nicer cash-flow position but the same money.

If you are buying a newly built home, note that the tax is calculated on the price before HST where HST applies. Your builder's statement of adjustments will spell it out — worth reading closely, because new-build closings carry adjustments resale purchases do not.