There is No Land Transfer Tax in Saskatchewan

Every once in a while I get asked if there is a land transfer tax in Saskatchewan. The answer is "no". This is the case regardless of whether the property being purchased is residential or commercial in nature.

Registration Costs in Saskatchewan

ISC (our land titles registry) charges a fee to register a title in a buyer's name and they also charge a flat fee to register a mortgage or other document. Effective July 29 2023, the cost to register a transfer of title is 0.4% or $4.00 per thousand of property's value. Therefore, registration of the transfer for a $400,000.00 property costs $1,600.00 .... ($400 x $4.00). The mortgage registration cost also depends on the amount your mortgage will be registered on title for. In most cases, the land registry will charge $250 but their range is $180 - $1,000 for the first 4 titles, depending on the amount the mortgage will be registered for. Other registrations are usually $55.00 for each title affected. They will also charge $55 to discharge each registration on title if you are a seller. All of these charges get updated every once in a while by ISC.

Registration Costs in other Provinces

Some provinces, such as British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario DO have a "land transfer tax". It's a tax on the purchase price that the purchaser must pay. It can be quite significant. A buyer in Ontario can expect to pay many thousands of dollars, but it depends on the value of the property. There may be exceptions and as always, the tax the other province charges can change from time to time. Those land transfer taxes are typically a significant amount to budget for so if you are buying a property in those provinces, you should ask what it will be ahead of time. Alberta does not have a land transfer tax nor does Saskatchewan. Alberta's land titles registration costs and also the NWT are a little lower than Saskatchewan, but without having made a proper study, they are the only province and territory I am aware of that charges less. British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario do charge a land transfer tax, so their registration costs are several times more expensive than Saskatchewan.

Reduced Fee Transactions

In Saskatchewan, if a person holds joint title with an individual who has passed away, the land titles registration cost to place title in the name of the survivor is nominal only. If you own title and are transferring it to yourself and another person, or the other way around, so that one owner will be on the title before and after the transfer takes place, the registration cost for that title is reduced somewhat. The reduction depends on who was on title before and who is being added afterwards, so it's not straight forward enough to describe better in this article.