In March of 2022, the City of Ottawa passed the Vacant Unit Tax (VUT) that is to take affect this year.
The city sent out notices both in November and January that included a “how-to make your
declaration”. However, according to a CBC article written on January 16th, there have roughly been
140,000 declarations made out of approximately 373,000 owned residential properties. This means that
roughly 62.5% of property owners have not made their declaration(s).

I can’t be sure as to why the remaining number is so high. Maybe the notices never arrived or were
missed. Maybe some property owners get notices from the city electronically and the emails were
directed to a junk/spam folder. Whatever the reason, there is no need to fret as the deadline isn’t until
March 16 th , 2023. However, if the deadline is missed, an automatic increase of 1% will be added to your
property tax bill beginning this year and going forward.

If you have made your declaration(s), that’s great! If not, here are the ways you can go about doing it as
well as the information need to complete it.

Information needed –

Roll Number and Access Code
Both are available on either notice the City mailed out or your 2022 property tax bill (at least the final
bill)
***see your tax bill for locations

Where to make your declaration –

Via My Service Ottawa: https://login-connexion.ottawa.ca/2a775437-34e9-49aa-8062-
df5d2a6da435/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?p=b2c_1a_signin_oidc&response_mode=form_post&ui_locales=
en&response_type=id_token&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fmyservice.ottawa.ca%2Fprofile%2Faccoun
t%2Flogin&client_id=55594906-305c-4fbb-845a-
1699e205d6ee&nonce=9ab025481621e0d42173c5a1ae606fe1&state=801bac630ef314e05a5a6bc4054
1f56f&scope=openid+openid

Via the City of Ottawa Website: https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/taxes/property-taxes/vacant-unit-
tax#

The City of Ottawa link also gives you access to additional helpful information about the VUT