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BUILDERS · REALTORS · LAWYERS

Your clients are asking about $130,000. We can answer them.

Ontario’s rebate ceiling moved from $24,000 to $130,000 in a single year, and the rules changed three times. Every buyer has heard a number. Most of the numbers circulating are wrong.

You don’t need to become an expert in the Excise Tax Act. You need somewhere to send the question.
Start a conversation
Call 647-281-5399
2,500 claims filed · $65 million recovered · 15+ years in Excise Tax · Never a percentage of your rebate.

The problem you're running into

*If you build. You now have to decide, on every sale, whether to credit the enhanced rebate at closing. Credit it and you carry the cost until the CRA reimburses you — which, with a program this new, is not a short wait. Decline to credit and you’re having an awkward conversation with a buyer about a six-figure sum.
 
If you sell. Every client with a pre-construction agreement wants to know what they’re getting back. The honest answer depends on their signing date, their ownership history, and which of three overlapping programs applies. That’s not a question you should have to answer, and it’s not one to guess at.

If you close files. Rebates that weren’t credited, buyers who didn’t know they qualified, and clients arriving with a denial letter and ninety days on the clock.

Crediting a rebate is a decision with consequences

When you credit a rebate at closing, you’re not just advancing the money. You’re taking a position on whether that purchaser qualifies.
 
If they didn’t, the liability can come back to you. The Excise Tax Act makes builder and purchaser jointly and severally liable where a rebate is paid or credited to someone who wasn’t entitled to it. 

That matters more than it used to, because the first-time buyer programs turn on a four-calendar-year ownership lookback that includes the purchaser’s spouse. You’re being asked to verify something you have no way to verify — from a declaration signed by the person who benefits from the answer.

There is a cleaner position: don’t credit. Let the purchaser claim directly, with a specialist preparing the application.

They get the rebate. You carry no cash-flow exposure and no liability. And the conversation changes from “we’re not giving you your rebate” to “here’s who handles this, and they do it for a living.”
If you’re drafting or amending agreements around who carries the HST at closing, the wording matters. Worth a conversation before the template goes out, not after.

What we handle

  • Enhanced rebate claims - the $130,000 program, open to all buyers, closing March 31, 2027
  • First-time buyer claims, including the ownership test that catches people out
  • Retroactive claims for buyers who closed before Royal Assent and couldn't be credited
  • Rental property rebates - per unit, and never creditable by a builder
  • Owner-built and substantial renovation claims
  • Denied claims - Notices of Objection, including on applications we didn't file
  • Assignment purchases, where the dates on both agreements govern

How a referral works

  1. Send them to us, or send us their question. Either. If it’s a quick eligibility question you want answered before you go back to your client, ask us directly — there’s no charge for that and no expectation attached.
  2. We assess for free, and we’re honest about it. If there’s no claim, we say so. You will not look bad for having made the introduction.
  3. The relationship stays yours. We handle the rebate. We don’t market other services to your clients and we don’t insert ourselves into your transaction.
  4. You hear back. If you want to know how it landed, ask. We’d rather you know the outcome than wonder.

Why this is worth having a specialist for

The Excise Tax Act is the whole of this firm’s practice. Not a service line inside a general accounting business — the practice.
 
That matters right now specifically. The Act was amended twice this year. Ontario introduced a temporary rebate that changes the maximum by more than $100,000. The CRA’s own administration took months to catch up with the legislation, and is still settling.
 
In that environment, the gap between someone who reads this material weekly and someone who encounters it occasionally is measured in five figures per file.

2,500 claims filed. $65 million recovered.
 
See the results →

Common questions

Do you pay referral fees?

No. Your client gets a specialist, and the relationship stays yours. We’d rather the referral rest on whether we do the work well.
No. We do GST/HST housing rebates and nothing else, so there’s nothing to cross-sell.
Yes, and people do. If a client’s asked you something and you’d rather check before answering, call. No charge and no expectation.
A flat professional fee rather than a percentage of their rebate, quoted before they commit and charged when we file. The initial assessment is free.
It happens constantly — a lot of what’s circulating is wrong, including from sources that should know better. Send them to us and we’ll give them the correct figure. Better they hear it now than after closing.
Both. Some builders refer buyers to us. Others ask us to look at how their agreements handle the HST before the template goes out.

Worth a conversation

Whether that’s a referral, a question, or a look at how your agreements are worded.
Get in touch
Call 647-281-5399
This page describes GST/HST housing rebate programs in general terms as of September 2026 and is not tax or legal advice. Builders should obtain their own advice on obligations and liabilities arising from crediting rebates at closing.
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