The vacant home tax is easy to skip when you live in the property, and that is how owners get a bill they never planned for. The City of Toronto wants a declaration every year, including from people who sleep there.

The 2025 declaration portal is already closed. The next opening is for the 2026 calendar year. The City’s April 2026 property tax insert says that declaration period opens at the beginning of November. As of October 19, the City’s vacant home tax page still says the 2025 portal is closed, so do not try to file this week and assume it went through.

If you own a house or a condo unit in Toronto, this is the filing, not the appeal. The appeal is a different problem, and only if you have already been billed.

Who has to file a vacant home tax declaration

A vacant home tax declaration is required for residential property in Toronto even when you will not owe the tax. The City’s page is explicit: most owners will not pay, as long as the declaration arrives by the deadline. If it does not, the City assumes the property was vacant.

You can declare it as your principal residence when you lived there at least six months of the year. That includes snowbirds, people away for work, and people away for a stretch of outpatient care, as long as the home is still your principal residence. You still file. A tenant needs a written term of at least 30 days and at least six months of occupancy in total. A family member who is not on title has to have used it as their principal residence for at least six months. A condo unit is declared by the unit owner, not by the condo corporation. If you own more than one property, you file each one separately.

You do not file for a property assessed fully as multi-residential, commercial, or industrial, for vacant land with no structure, or for a parking space or a condo locker. A brand-new home that is not yet on the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation roll is not in the annual declaration until it is on that roll.

The rate, beginning with the 2024 taxation year, is 3 per cent of the property’s current value assessment. I wrote the rate up in the vacant home tax article. A false declaration, or a failure to provide information when the City asks, can bring a fine of up to $10,000 on top of the tax. The rules are on the City’s vacant home tax page.

What a missed filing costs

The City’s page says that if a declaration is not received by the April 30 deadline, the property is assumed vacant and a notice of assessment goes out. That April 30 line is the rule that created deemed-vacant bills. I am not going to invent a new deadline for the 2026 year. What the City has published is that the 2026 declaration period opens at the beginning of November, and that a missed declaration is treated as vacant.

The tax is a lien on the property. If you are buying, ask for a copy of the filed declaration. If none was filed, the charge can follow the home, not the seller. Vendors should hand the buyer the completed declaration. Buyers should have their lawyer check it before waiving conditions.

If you already received a 2025 bill and the home was occupied or exempt, the deadline to dispute that bill is December 31, 2026. The steps are in my appeals article. Do not confuse that complaint with the new declaration. And if you are already paying a 2025 vacant home tax bill, the City set three instalments: September 15, October 15, and November 16, 2026. A pre-authorized property tax plan does not pay this bill for you.

What to gather for the vacant home tax

When the portal opens, the vacant home tax filing needs the customer number from your property tax bill, plus the address or the 21-digit assessment roll number. An owner can file, and so can an authorized representative.

• Confirm the 2026 portal is actually open before you enter anything. The City said it opens at the beginning of November. It was not open on October 19.
• File even if you live there, and file each Toronto property you own.
• If you claim an exemption, the City asks for documents with the declaration. Renovations need permits and a description. A death exemption needs a death certificate. Do not send medical photos.
• Keep the records for at least three years. The City can audit and ask for proof.
• Condo owners: the corporation’s status certificate is not your occupancy declaration. You file the unit yourself.
• Buyers: get the seller’s declaration before you waive conditions. The tax can stay with the property.
• If a 2025 bill is wrong, use the complaint route before December 31, 2026. Do not wait for the November portal to fix last year’s bill.

Final Thoughts

Living in the home does not exempt you from the declaration. It is the reason the tax should not apply, once you actually file. The 2026 period opens at the beginning of November. The 2025 portal is already shut.

If you are not sure whether a house or a condo unit you own has to be declared, contact me with the address. I will tell you what I would file, and what I would hand a buyer.