Quote:
Originally Posted by flamesfever
I would guess there are a lot of older people in those neighbourhoods, and just because they live in an expensive house, doesn't always mean they have a lot of money to spend on taxes.
Anyway, it's nice to think if you work hard all your life and manage to acquire an above average house, you won't be taxed out of it in your old age.
When we first came to Calgary in the early 60's, the prairies east of Calgary was littered with abandoned homes, which at one time were someone's dream home, that they ended up having to leave because they couldn't pay the taxes.
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I have a pretty hard time thinking we should be intentionally subsidizing multi-millionaire's taxes, no matter how nice they are/little old ladies, etc. Maybe we could spend our tax dollars helping actual poor people?
If cash flow is really a big issue, someone who is old could easily take out a 100/200k reverse mortgage to pay the taxes on their place during their lifetime. Now, that might cut the grandkids inheritance down from a 3MM$ house to only $2.5MM, but somehow I think they'll manage.
I would also be ok with what they do in BC, where you're allowed to freeze your property taxes at a certain age, and the part you don't pay accrues with interest to be paid when you move/die.