Income Tax Act — I-3.3 (a)
principal residence of a taxpayer for a taxation year means a particular property that is a housing unit, a leasehold interest in a housing unit or a share of the capital stock of a co-operative housing corporation acquired for the sole purpose of acquiring the right to inhabit a housing unit owned by the corporation and that is owned, whether jointly with another person or otherwise, in the year by the taxpayer, if (a) where the taxpayer is an individual other than a personal trust, the housing unit was ordinarily inhabited in the year by the taxpayer, by the taxpayer’s spouse or common-law partner or former spouse or common-law partner or by a child of the taxpayer, (a.1) where the taxpayer is a personal trust, the housing unit was ordinarily inhabited in the calendar year ending in the year by a specified beneficiary of the trust for the year, by the spouse or common-law partner or former spouse or common-law partner of such a beneficiary or by a child of such a beneficiary, or (b) where the taxpayer is a personal trust or an individual other than a trust, the taxpayer (i) elected under subsection 45(2) that relates to the change in use of the particular property in the year or a preceding taxation year, other than an election rescinded under subsection 45(2) in the taxpayer’s return of income for the year or a preceding taxation year, or (ii) elected under subsection 45(3) that relates to a change in use of the particular property in a subsequent taxation year, except that, subject to section 54.1, a particular property shall be considered not to be a taxpayer’s principal residence for a taxation year (c) where the taxpayer is an individual other than a personal trust, unless the particular property was designated by the taxpayer in prescribed form and manner to be the taxpayer’s principal residence for the year and no other property has been designated for the purposes of this definition for the year (i) where the year is before 1982, by the taxpayer, or (ii) where the year is after 1981, (A) by the taxpayer, (B) by a person who was throughout the year the taxpayer’s spouse or common-law partner (other than a spouse or common-law partner who was throughout the year living apart from, and was separated under a judicial separation or written separation agreement from, the taxpayer), (C) by a person who was the taxpayer’s child (other than a child who was at any time in the year a married person, a person who is in a common-law partnership or 18 years of age or older), or (D) where the taxpayer was not at any time in the year a married person, a person who is in a common-law partnership or 18 years of age or older, by a person who was the taxpayer’s (I) mother or father, or (II) brother or sister, where that brother or sister was not at any time in the year a married person, a person who is in a common-law partnership or 18 years of age or older, (c.1) where the taxpayer is a personal trust, unless (i) the particular property was designated by the trust in prescribed form and manner to be the taxpayer’s principal residence for the year, (ii) the trust specifies in the designation each individual (in this definition referred to as a “specified beneficiary” of the trust for the year) who, in the calendar year ending in the year, (A) is beneficially interested in the trust, and (B) except where the trust is entitled to designate it for the year solely because of paragraph (b), ordinarily inhabited the housing unit or has a spouse or common-law partner, former spouse or common-law partner or child who ordinarily inhabited the housing unit, (iii) no corporation (other than a registered charity) or partnership is beneficially interested in the trust at any time in the year, (iii.1) if the year begins after 2016, the trust is, in the year, (A) a trust (I) for which a day is to be determined under paragraph 104(4)(a), (a.1) or (a.4) by reference to the death or later death, as the case may be, that has not occurred before the beginn