Taxes on What You Should Have Done with Your Property But Didn’t

In Vancouver, if you have a property that someone else would love to tear down to build a high rise, the government has created a scheme to make you pay taxes as if you were a high-rise. Small businesses pay some amount of tax on the airspace above their businesses, which they have not developed. Yes, the B.C. government taxes property assessed on their “highest and best use” value. Essentially, a single-story building for a small mom-pop business is taxed as if they had sold out to a land developer and now own a multi-story commercial building.