How to know if you qualify for the new Home Buyers' Tax Credit

How to know if you qualify for the new Home Buyers' Tax Credit

www.newscanada.com

Find out if you meet the criteria to claim federal government money
Before you claim the proposed First-Time Home Buyers' Tax Credit, there are some things you should know about qualifying:

Neither you, your spouse or common-law partner lived in a house that either of you owned in the year of purchase or any of the four preceding years.

- If you are a person with a disability or are buying a house for a relative with a disability, you don't have to be a first-time home buyer. However, the home must be purchased to allow the person with a disability to live in a more accessible dwelling or in an environment better suited to the personal needs and care of that person.

- A qualifying home is a housing unit located in Canada that already exists or is being built.

- A share in a co-operative housing corporation that entitles you to possess, and that gives you an equity interest in a housing unit located in Canada, also qualifies. However, a share that only provides you with a right to tenancy in the housing unit does not qualify.

- The home must have been acquired after January 27, 2009.

The HBTC is part of the Government of Canada's $62 billion economic stimulus announced in the Economic Action Plan to give first-time home buyers up to $750 in tax relief.
For more information, visit www.cra-arc.gc.ca.