BC home flipping tax

The BC home flipping tax applies to the profit you earn from selling a property in British Columbia (including presale contracts) if you owned the property for less than 730 days.

​ The tax is imposed under the Residential Property (Short-Term Holding) Profit Tax Act, which took effect on January 1, 2025.

Property acquired before the tax’s effective date may be subject to the tax if sold on or after January 1, 2025 and owned for less than 730 days, unless an exemption applies. If you’ve acquired a property other than by purchasing a property (i.e. you were gifted the property), your cost to purchase the property is $0.

The BC home flipping tax is separate and distinct from the federal property flipping rules and is not harmonized or administered with the federal or B.C. income tax. It is intended to discourage short-term holding of property for profit as part of the Homes for People Plan (PDF, 5.93MB).

​​On this page

• Who is subject to the tax?
• Do I need to file a return?
• Exemptions from the tax
• How the tax is calculated
• Days of ownership
• Gifts of taxable property
• Primary residence deduction
• BC home flipping tax overview (video)

Who is subject to the tax?

If a person (which includes an individual, corporation, partnership or trust) sells or disposes of a taxable property on or after January 1, 2025, the profit earned from the sale would be subject to the new tax if the property was purchased less than 730 days before the sale. The seller of the property may be a B.C. resident or a resident anywhere else in the world.

​The BC home flipping tax applies only if a taxpayer has disposed of a taxable property.  Unless otherwise noted, a reference to a disposition on these pages refers to a disposition as defined for BC home flipping tax purposes.  For the purposes of the BC home flipping tax, a taxable transaction would not generally be considered to include a transaction or event that does not require consideration in money or in kind, including the following:

• Deemed disposition under the Income Tax Act (Canada) or other legislation
• Subdividing property
• Mortgage, charge, or lien on a taxable property
• Lease
• Gift
• Any other transaction or event resulting in a change in legal title but not a change in beneficial ownership

In 2026, the BC home flipping tax pages were updated to replace “purchase” with “acquire” and “sale” with “dispose”, except where the legislation requires a reference to a sale.

Taxable properties

Taxable property refers to a beneficial interest in residential property, or a right to acquire a beneficial interest in residential property.

Generally, this means the tax will apply to the profit you earn from the sale of:

• Properties with a housing unit
• Properties zoned for residential use
• The right to acquire the above properties, such as the assignment of a purchase contract for a pre-built condo building or the assignment of a purchase contract for the resale of a property

• The tax will not apply to exempt property locations or the leasing or sale of a leasehold interest in a residential property.

The day you acquire a taxable property is generally the date you pay for the property.  For most people, this will be the closing date, which is the date that the seller transfers ownership to you and is the time the seller is entitled to receive your money for the disposition.

The day you dispose of a taxable property is generally the date you receive money for the property.  For most people, this will be the closing date, which is the date you transfer ownership to the acquirer and is the time you are entitled to receive the acquirer’s money for the disposition.

Do I need to file a BC home flipping tax return?

The BC home flipping tax return is separate and distinct from the annual income tax filings.

You must file a BC home flipping tax return within 90 days of the sale, if either of the following applies:

• You are subject to the tax, as you disposed of your taxable property within 729 days of acquiring it 
• Your exemption applies only after you file a return

You do NOT have to file a return if one of the following applies:

• You do not qualify for the tax as you disposed of your taxable property after owning it for more than 729 days
• Your exemption applies without needing to file a return
• You are a developer and you are initially entering into an agreement which establishes a right to acquire a property (for example, when a developer enters into a presale agreement with an initial purchaser)

File your BC home flipping tax return

Exemptions from the tax

You may not need to pay the tax if you are eligible for an exemption. Depending on your exemption, you are either exempt only after filing a return, or can be exempt without filing a return.

How the tax is calculated

The BC home flipping tax applies to net taxable income from the disposition of taxable property that was owned for less than 730 days.

The tax rate is 20 percent of net taxable income earned from a taxable property disposed of within 365 days, and the rate gradually decreases over the next 365 days. At 730 days, the tax no longer applies.

Days of ownership

Find out how to determine the days of ownership. 

Note: Days of ownership are determined differently if you acquired a presale contract or if you acquired from a related person.

Days of ownership for trusts can be found on the Trusts page.

Gifts of taxable property

There is no blanket exemption for acquiring a taxable property as a gift. If you acquired a gift from a related person, you are deemed to have acquired the taxable property on the date that related person originally acquired it. As a result, for the purpose of calculating the period the taxable property was owned, the ownership periods of the related giftor and giftee are in effect added together.

 If the related giftor had already held the taxable property for more than 729 days, then the flipping tax will not apply

 If you acquired taxable property as a gift and have not held the taxable property for 729 days, you will be required to file the return and pay any BC home flipping tax on the profit you earn when you dispose of it, unless you:

Acquired it from a related person and the days you and the related person held the property is for a total of more than 729 days, or

Claim another exemption when you dispose of the taxable property

The cost to acquire a taxable property that is a gift is $0.  For additional information, please refer to the definition of “cost to acquire a taxable property.”

Primary residence deduction

If you disposed of your primary residence and you owned the residential property that is a taxable property for less than 730 days, you may be able to claim a deduction of up to $20,000 from your taxable income if you meet all of the following conditions:

• You owned the residential property for at least 365 consecutive days before you disposed of it
• The residential property includes a housing unit that you lived in as your primary residence while you owned it

A primary residence is defined as the place you lived in longer than any other place during the time you owned the residence. The primary residence deduction is only available for a residential property; it is not available when you assign a presale contract.

If you dispose of a portion of your interest in the residential property that is a taxable property, your primary residence deduction amount will be proportionate to that interest.​​