$17K bill for empty homes tax on live-work townhouse.

Shawn Moore stands in front of his live-work townhouse at Howe and Pacific streets in Vancouver. 

Moore is being forced to pay the city's empty homes tax, because the space was used mainly as an office last year — as permitted by its zoning.

Moore said as he tried to fight the tax bill and navigate the audit, city staff were very helpful. But he said the process still took about 30 hours of his time, including calls to lawyers and tax accountants, and in the end, it was the auditors who lacked flexibility.

"The auditors acknowledged that it is zoned for live-work-commercial. But they don't care. It's a vacancy tax that applies to all zonings that have any residential component to them," he said.

The objective of the Empty Homes Tax (Vacancy Tax) is to return empty or under-used properties to use as long-term rental homes for people who live and work in Vancouver. The rate of the Empty Homes Tax is 1% of a property's assessed taxable value.

Number of houses sitting empty in Vancouver BC

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