Complete your Vacant Unit Tax declaration before March 19

It’s Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) declaration time again. Complete your online declaration for the 2025 occupancy year for each residential property that you own before the March 19, 2026, deadline. A $250 late fee applies to all late submissions.

Submitting your declaration online is simple and takes less than a minute. 

• If you have a MyService.Ottawa.ca account:  Log in and submit your declaration through your property tax account

• If you do not have an account:  Visit Ottawa.ca/vut  and select Submit Declaration using your roll number and secure access code (found on last year’s property tax bill or notice)

Notices will be sent to property owners in January, with email delivery used whenever possible. Please also check your junk-mail folder.

By phone (Monday to Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm):

• Call 613-580-2444 and select option 3, where an agent will help complete your declaration over the phone
• Call 613-580-2400 to contact the City using Canada Video Relay Service
• In-person: Visit any City Client Service Centre. Visit ottawa.ca/csc for locations and business hours.

As a reminder, properties that are vacant for consecutive years will be charged an increased VUT rate after the first year. For each additional consecutive year, the rate goes up one per cent up to a maximum of five per cent.

Ottawa’s Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) has already returned 1,602 units to the market between 2022 and 2023. Achieving this outcome through new builds would be equivalent to $400 million in capital investment.

Overall, the VUT demonstrates that policy tools can unlock housing supply more efficiently than construction alone, while evolving to address resistant vacancy patterns and strengthen Ottawa’s affordable housing strategy. See the report on the second-year results online at ottawa.ca/vut.

Learn more about the Vacant Unit Tax at ottawa.ca/vut.  .