Residential complex (GST/HST)

A seller whose business includes living space meets this term when real property is sold with the business, such as a shop with an apartment above it or a building with rental suites. Section 123(1) of the Excise Tax Act defines it, and the CRA explains it in GST/HST Memorandum 19.2. The answer on GST/HST on a building covers who pays.

What the definition covers

• The part of a building in which one or more residential units are located, with the common areas and land that the definition ties to those units
• A semi-detached house, rowhouse unit or condominium unit that is, or is intended to be, a separate parcel, with its share of common areas
• A mobile home, with its appurtenances and, where it is affixed to land other than a site in a residential trailer park, the land the definition ties to it; or a floating home
• The whole of a building owned by, or sold to, an individual and used primarily as a residence of that individual, a related individual or a former spouse or common-law partner

What to check

Ask which paragraph of the definition the property falls under. Ask whether the exclusion for a hotel, motel, inn, boarding house, lodging house or similar premises could apply. Under s. 123(1) it applies where the building is not described in paragraph (c) and all or substantially all of the leases, licences or similar arrangements for its residential units provide, or are expected to provide, for continuous possession or use of less than sixty days. If the premises also serve a business use, ask how the definition applies to the residential part. Related terms include GST/HST registration.