Why Is Your Home Suddenly Being Called “Untaxed Wealth”?

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Oh, the language around your house is changing. That's right. Politicians, weather has changed. We like to think of ourselves as political weather predictors here on this show. And we're starting to notice some new terminology coming out around your house that you should be deeply concerned about. Have you ever noticed those things? Have you ever noticed governments almost never introduce a major new tax by just walking up to a podium and saying, "Good morning, everyone. we're here just to give you a new tax on your retirement.

[00:00:30]That's not at all how it works. First, what they do is they test it out as they did years ago with the home equity tax.

[00:00:37]They get the CHC to study it. Then, when it's all rejected and pushed back against, they start to redo the language. They soften the ground it's on. They introduce new phrases that help convince you that maybe it is needed.

[00:00:51]things like fair share and intergenerational equity and untaxed wealth and wealth inequality. These have all been coming up recently in committees and in speak from liberal MPs for the last few months. And slowly something that used to be seen as securities starts getting renamed as privilege. And you know what liberals do with privilege? That's why I think Canadians need to pay very close attention to the way politicians, economists, advocacy groups for the Liberals, and even media outlets are starting to talk about your own house.

[00:01:27]They're calling it housing wealth in this country. And that's a new phrase.

[00:01:32]And because there's a new phrase, we should all be deeply concerned. It isn't just the Canadian dream. It isn't just home ownership now. Now, increasingly, it's being described as accumulated untaxed wealth. And that should be very concerning because when governments start changing the way they describe something, you should probably start paying attention before you're blindsided by a brand new tax. Let's tap into the truth.

[00:02:02]>> Welcome to Bakes on Things.

[00:02:08]Well, speaking of money, one of this show's supporters is the folks behind the Tester UP app. You've seen them here before, and you can get paid upwards of $200 per week with the right effort just by completing surveys and testing out new games. It's all proven and it's free and it's a neat new way to make little a little extra cash for yourself. The QR code to download the TesterUp app is on your screen now. Just scan it in your phone's photo app or click the link in the description to download tester up for free and start putting a little cash in your wallet right now. Welcome back to Tap the Maple. It is your Wednesday morning. I am hoping you've all had a great night last night. I'm not here today to tell you a home equity tax is being announced tomorrow morning. Don't worry about that. And we've talked about the home equity tax potential in the past. It's not entirely what this episode is about, although it also is.

[00:03:03]I'll get there. This is currently not a tax. Currently, not something that is on the way that we know of. No legislation, no active bill, no announced plan just yet from the Liberal government. But there is something quietly happening in committees and languages and meetings and some of the government think tanks that I think is politically and economically significant to you especially if you own a home. The language around your home ownership is changing and historically language changes tend to come before policy changes in government. And that's true with carbon taxes. It's true with luxury taxes. It was true with vacancy taxes before they came into play. It was true with anti- flipping rules. It's been true for a very long time. In fact, it was even true with digital services taxes before we had to bow down to the US on that. The language was changing just before they were introduced. And increasingly, we are now hearing Canadian housing wealth described in ways we simply did not hear even 5 years ago. not as family stability, not as retirement protection, not as sacrifice and saving, but as basically your wealth and but not just any kind of wealth, undertaxed wealth. Now, even though we have a prime minister who's been undertaxed for years, the distinction matters because once governments and policy circles start defining something as undertaxed, you better start raising your eyebrows because the next question becomes, well, if it's undertaxed, then how do we tax it some more? Thanks for saying that with me. I knew you all had it. And so, here we are. And I think the moment that really changed the psychology around something like this, the the moment that really changed the psychology around this entire issue of home equity taxes for many Canadians was the federal government's attempt to raise the capital gains inclusion rate.

[00:05:10]Now, of course, that was scrapped based on a bunch of fury from Canadians, but technically the principal residence exemption remained untouched in that particular change. And while that's true, psychologically things were a little different or things I guess just started to change given the language over the last few months, that moment mathered mattered enormously because it meant they couldn't collect those extra taxes and needed to find another way.

[00:05:37]And for years, Canadians have been told, "Well, don't worry. Certain tax principles in this country are untouchable." In fact, liberals will jump into the comments in this episode and say that. Then suddenly, actually, maybe not. Maybe they're not untouchable. And once governments show that they are willing to revisit wealth taxation, people naturally begin asking some very interesting and serious questions, ones that affect you in your everyday life, including what's next?

[00:06:06]What else are you going to tax on me?

[00:06:08]And that's not paranoia. That's pattern recognition from a citizenry that's so bloody overt taxed, they can't take it anymore. especially in a country where housing has become the retirement plan for millions of people because they just can't save enough to do it. Let's be honest, a huge percentage of Canadians do not have goldplated pensions feeding their retirements. They don't have giant stock portfolios, and even if they did, they've probably taken some massive hits recently. They don't have offshore trusts that they can rely on that where they've hidden away from taxes for years and years. their net worth is their home. That's especially true for the middle class. It's especially true for the upper middle class and the middle class retirees, workingclass boomers, Gen X homeowners, widows, fixed income seniors, and middle inome families who simply bought at the right time. To many Canadians, their house is not some luxury speculative instrument. In fact, it is their place. It is their owned place. They don't want you touching anything about it, the government, but you already do, of course. But it to them it's survival. It's dignity. It's security. It's what they sacrificed for over 30 years for to pay it off and to have all of this equity. But increasingly, political conversations, especially in recent months, are beginning to frame housing wealth very, very differently. And that's a concern for me because I've been watching very closely as you know there's about two or three other episodes on home equity taxes to see I just really feel I'm highly suspicious this is coming and we hear phrases now this year like intergenerational unfairness. We hear phrases like housing inequality. We hear phrases like wealth concentration and untaxed gains. Generation Squeeze, one of the most influential housing advocacy organizations in Canada, has openly argued this year that older homeowners have benefited from enormous tax-free housing gains, while younger Canadians have been absolutely locked out from it.

[00:08:23]Their founder, Paul Kershaw, has repeatedly argued that Canada taxes work more heavily than housing wealth. That is an incredibly important framing shift given the generation squeeze is an important think tank for Mark Carney because that changes the entire debate from how do we build more homes which they say they're still trying to do but 500,000 well we're not anywhere near that to who has too much housing wealth and how can we get a hold of some of that to pay down the deficit or the debt. And once politics begins dividing the country into housing winners versus our housing losers, then we're in big big trouble. Tax conversations inevitably start following that conversation almost right away. That is how politics works. Let's find a way to get that money into our coffers so that we can pay for the national debt and our programs that we keep forcing out to other underprivileged people to keep relying on the government. And this is important. Governments often don't introduce controversial ideas directly at first. Instead, they change the language around it to make you start to think, "Hey, yeah, that's right. Why do so many people get to have their homes and their home equity? Think tanks discuss them. Academics normalize the language. Advocacy d groups politicize everything. Economists rationalize it.

[00:09:49]Media talks about it. And then everybody starts to say, well, perhaps we should examine the options on this. That's the pipeline to taxation. And we've already seen pieces of this discussion emerging.

[00:10:03]We've talked about it in recent months.

[00:10:06]Back in previous CHC supported discussions, researchers actually explored explicitly whether Canada over relies on taxing income while undertaxing things like housing wealth.

[00:10:19]though they didn't call it housing wealth at the time. They just called it home equity. Now they're just changing it to housing wealth to make it sound like you're way too overprivileged.

[00:10:28]Again, no legislation yet, not policy, but discussion and far too much discussion on it if you ask me. And discussions do matter because even though it's not policy yet, governments test public reaction long before legislation appears. And if they can change the language around it to make you believe that, yeah, these people who own their own homes have too much wealth, this is where Canadians need to stay sharp. Because as soon as they do that, that's when they're going to start assessing this tax. Again, modern tax policy is increasingly framed around morals and emotion, not economically, because they know that you're probably not going to listen. But once we get into morals and emotion, you're going to hear phrases like everyone paying their fair share. Those who paid off their houses now that are worth a million dollars, they're not paying their fair share. And then to others, that's going to sound reasonable, especially to young people who maybe can't buy a house yet.

[00:11:26]Then you'll hear, "Why should work be taxed when there's more wealth that is out there to be taxed instead?" Again, sounds reasonable. But then you'll also hear, "Why should someone pay less tax from housing gains than someone working a job?" These things will suddenly start to creep into our language, into our ether. They'll start to creep into people's brains as truth, and millions of ordinary homeowners become politically targeted, politically grouped together with billionaires and speculators, even though they're nowhere close. even though many of them are just retirees sitting on homes that they bought in 1989.

[00:12:07]This is why rhetoric matters in our world because once housing equity stops being culturally viewed as earned middle class stability, well, that's a problem because it starts being framed as something different. It starts being framed as unearned, untaxed accumulation. And that's not true at all. Well, think about how long it took you to pay off that house. The political foundation changes completely though when they change the language to that and then that changes the fiscal reality and that becomes the elephant in the room. And so let's talk about that thing that nobody wants to talk about or to say out loud here in Canada. Number one, Canada is entering an era of unbelievable fiscal pressure. It's not getting better so far. And no matter where Mark Cardi turns, it seems to get worse. Health care costs are exploding.

[00:12:59]We know debt servicing costs on our own government debt are absolutely soaring beyond what we collect in GST.

[00:13:05]Infrastructure spending is massive in this country. We keep sending billions to Ukraine. Housing programs are massive. But don't worry, the government did their part on your gas relief. Uh 10 cents per liter. But anyway, military spending pressure is growing. Aging population means fewer workers are supporting more retirees. And governments, governments everywhere from municipal to federal to provincial are running out of painless places to find their revenue. Meanwhile, families have trillions of dollars sitting in Canadian residential real estate. So, where do you think they're going to go next? That reality exists whether you like hearing about it or not, whether there's policy existing or not, because it is a very real risk. And from a government revenue perspective, housing wealth becomes very, very tempting to tap into. It's easy and we can tax you for it.

[00:14:05]Especially when policymakers increasingly argue that housing gains are a passive form of income. We've heard that said. We've heard that it's concentrated and that it's lightly taxed compared to employment income. That is the intellectual groundwork that makes Canadians very, very nervous. Not because a policy is imminent yet. That's not at at all what we're saying. But because the logic pathway is slowly being built publicly, brick by brick.

[00:14:37]think the yellow brick road is being built to the end castle of taxing your castle. Let's put it that way. This might actually be the biggest tell of all, by the way. And that is over the past few years, politicians have increasingly felt the need to publicly reassure Canadians that they will not impose a home equity tax. Why? Think about that for a second. Think about the logic in politicians going out of their way to saying no, they won't do that.

[00:15:10]Why would parties repeatedly campaign against something that supposedly isn't even being considered? Well, the reason is because it is being considered. You see, Pierre Polyv specifically pledged during the election campaign that there will be no taxation on the equity in your home. Why would he even feel he had to say that if that was never on the table? Now, politically, that's also smart messaging, of course, but it also reveals something very deep. That is that Canadians are increasingly worried about this being a possibility on their homes. You worked your whole life to pay it off. You used after tax income to pay it off. But once public trust erodess around taxation, which I would hazard to guess it mostly has by now, people begin assuming governments are always searching for the next revenue source.

[00:16:02]And frankly, after years of being taxed on carbon, of being taxed on tax on tax, of being subjected to inflation, which is essentially a tax, of rising property taxes, of rising fees and levies that are essentially taxes, bracket creep for tax brackets and affordability collapse.

[00:16:22]Many Canadians no longer believe that the government is ever out to help them.

[00:16:27]It could never happen. is not really in the vocabulary anymore around home equity tax either. So, this is probably the most important part of the entire episode then. And as we wrap this up, I want you to hear this and ingest it very quickly and in very deeply. If governments ever did move toward taxing housing wealth more aggressively, it probably would not begin with an annual tax on your home's equity. that's too easy for them, but it's too difficult for you. It would likely arrive gradually in the form of a stepbystep taxation of your home of some type. So maybe you would look and I don't want to give the government ideas. I'm actually afraid to even mention these things because who knows but sir taxes on ultra-igh value homes for example which actually they've already talked about before inheritance discussions on primary residences partial exemption caps luxury residence thresholds municipal coordination expanded reporting or targeted fairness measures.

[00:17:33]Governments rarely boil the frog instantly. They know that can hurt you too much and then hurt their results in the next election. What they do is they warm the water slowly to a boil. And history shows tax systems almost always expand incrementally. That's why Canadians are paying attention to the language of all of this right now because that could be the pot on the kettle or the pot on the stove that's starting to heat up. Because once a country culturally accepts the idea that housing wealth is unfairly untacked or undertaxed, the rest becomes politically easier over time. So, let's wrap this up here this morning so you can get on with your day and start to think about this and continue to push back against home equity taxes. Again, this episode is not me telling you a home equity tax is being announced next week. We're not going there. It's not policy that's about to be introduced. That would be dishonest. That is not the way we operate. This episode though is about something more important. Watch, watch, watch. And that is watching how the conversation is starting to change because conversation always starts to change before those policy changes.

[00:18:46]Because history shows governments almost never start with the actual full tax.

[00:18:52]First, they change the story around it, which is what we're seeing right now.

[00:18:56]and calling it calling it housing wealth. And right now in Canada, the story around your home is clearly beginning to change around that term itself. Your house is increasingly no longer being discussed as your sanctuary, the place you paid off with your hard-earned money, your retirement, your sacrifice or your stability.

[00:19:15]Increasingly, in fact, it is now being looked at as wealth. It's being discussed as personal housing wealth.

[00:19:24]And uh that doesn't bode well when it comes to taxation. And once politicians, economists, and advocacy groups start viewing something primarily through the lens of taxable wealth that others may not have, Canadians should at least sit up and pay attention and listen to the language of everything that's coming in the future. Because whether you support those ideas or you oppose these ideas of home equity taxes, the rhetoric shift is still real. It's still already happening and it signals there's change of foot.

[00:19:59]And ignoring rhetoric shifts is usually how societies get absolutely burned and blindsided later. That's how you tap into the truth. Don't forget to like, subscribe, join the conversation down below. Have you heard language in your local governments, your provincial governments, your federal governments that are starting to talk more and more about your house being wealth rather than being something that's your sanctuary you paid off after years of working? What would you do if they implemented a home equity tax or or tapped into your home wealth? And what would you say if the government decided there'd be a policy tomorrow on this?

[00:20:37]I'm very curious to hear your opinion.

[00:20:38]So, jump in the comments to let me know.

[00:20:41]And of course, don't forget to join us at 4:00 this afternoon for our afternoon episode of Tap the Maple here on your Wednesday. For now, have a great rest of your day and we will see you this afternoon. Bye, everybody.