Help make donating land for affordable housing easier

Did you know that if a person or a corporation wants to donate land to a Community Land Trust (CLT) that the tax credit or offset generated by the donation will not overcome the tax owing from the capital gain? In other words they will lose the asset and owe tax for doing so! This means that there is a lot of land that is just held or sold. There is a strong tax disincentive to donate the land for affordable housing.

The good news is that there is an easy fix and you can help to make it happen. Right now there is a petition encouraging the Federal Government to amend the tax act to incentivize land donations to community land trusts to build affordable housing. This policy is already supported by Canadian Chamber of Commerce, representing a network of over 450 chambers and over 200,000 businesses across Canada, along with many other organizations across Canada.

Even better the proposed amendments are based on a policy that is already working great - the policies in the tax act for individuals and corporations to make donations to ecological land reserves. These mechanisms currently allow for donations of land to ecological reserves to be capital gains exempt; in addition, a tax credit or deduction can be provided in exchange for the land, based on the fair market value. These mechanisms in the Income Tax Act have already proven effective in incentivizing individuals and corporations to make land donations to ecological reserves. Since 2006 over a billion dollars of land have been donated this way.

The Muskoka Community Land Trust is a key partner in the G.R.E.A.T Housing Project because Community Land Trusts are an amazing way to build, support and maintain affordable housing. But CLTs need land. Let’s make it easier to get it. Check out the video below for more information (and you can get more info here) and please sign the petition!