Assessment now unfair: Group
Property tax rates not based on falling rates, critics say
Antonella Artuso, Queen's Park Bureau Chief (Toronto Sun)
December 16, 2008
Ontario's falling house prices may exacerbate unfairness in the province's four-year property tax assessment process and the province may want to cap or cancel its 2008 assessment, the head of a ratepayer group says.
Bob Topp, chairman of Coalition After Property Tax Reform (CAPTR), said almost one million property owners in Ontario saw increases of more than 30% in their 2008 assessments. However, homes are beginning to fall in price and properties aren't scheduled to be re-assessed for four years.
"No one ever planned it this way, but it just so happens that the first time they assess on this four-year cycle, they're assessing — it would appear — at the top of the market," Topp said.
When real estate values tumbled in 1990, urban and cottage country properties tended to lose value at a higher rate, he said.
"The ones that went up the most, tended to come down the most," Topp said.
"If your assessment went up more than the average for your municipality, it does mean an increase in taxes. And the properties that, over the last three years, went up the most are the ones that are going to pick up a bigger share of the tax burden, and they're also the ones that I think are most likely to decline more sharply in a soft market."
Topp said Ontario may want to cap or cancel its 2008 assessment.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has said that property assessments do not necessarily mean tax increases. The minister has said the four-year cycle, which provides for any increases to be phased in, brings predictability, stability and fairness to the system.
Source: Toronto Sun