'I'm not wealthy': Ontario senior shocked she owes $40,000 in capital gains after gifting land

An Ontario senior who wanted to help her daughter and grandson eventually own homes one day decided to give them two lots on her property as a gift—but she didn’t know it would eventually cost her tens of thousands of dollars.

An Ontario senior who wanted to help her daughter and grandson eventually own homes one day decided to give them two lots on her property as a gift—but she didn’t know it would eventually cost her tens of thousands of dollars.

Liz Diachun, 93, has lived on her farm property in Warkworth for 58 years and said she wanted her family to live in the lots across the road.

"There are a couple of lots there that you could build on and of course they were thrilled and I said to them I’m going to gift it to you,” she said.

“With the cost of rent these days they are having to pay something like $2,500 a month to rent houses and who can save up for a down payment with rents like that."

Diachun's lawyer told her that even though she was giving the land away, she would have to get it appraised to pay capital gains.

"I said why should I pay capital gains? I’m not selling it to them, I’m gifting it to them,” said Diachun.

One lot has a hydro tower on it and the other is partial wetlands, still they were appraised at $125,000 and $145,000, totalling $270,000.