King’s taxes in line with GTA neighbours

August 26, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons
King may have the distinction of having high residential taxes, but the truth is the local rates are reasonable, when stacked up against other GTA municipalities.
Residential and multi-residential property tax rates decreased in all 27 municipalities in the GTHA in 2014 compared to 2013.
In King, the average assessment in 2013 was $566,841 and the average rose to $612,874 this year.
The average taxes hit $5,773 this year, a slight increase over 2013 levels of $5,544.
This year, King’s budget contained a 2.59 per cent increase in property taxes for the Township’s portion of the property tax bill. For an average home assessed at $711,902, that means property owners will be paying $61.18 more than the 2013 tax bill, which works out to about $5.10 per month.
The tax hike in the 2014 municipal budget seems to be in line with our neighbours.
In fact, King’s increase of 2.59% is lower than our counterparts in this region of the GTA.
York Region passed its budget that contains a 1.54% increase, and the blended rate (assuming no increase on the part of the school boards) will see a 1.56% hike for King homeowners.
In King, York Region gets the biggest portion of the taxes – 45%. The Township gets 33% and the school boards the remaining 22%.
For the third year in a row Durham Region municipalities, led by Oshawa, had the highest residential tax rates. Toronto continues to have the lowest residential rate. Though all residential rates dropped, the changes were minimal with an average decrease of .026 per cent.
York Region municipalities continued to have the lowest multi-residential tax rates while Hamilton’s rates remained the highest in the region. Toronto had the biggest decline in multi-residential rates with a .109 per cent decrease, while Barrie had the smallest decrease at .008 per cent.
King ranks 16th on the list, just slightly above its Caledon neighbour.
The mill rate is multiplied by the property’s assessed value, carried out by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, which then sends their figures to the municipalities. Residents receive a notice from MPAC outlining their taxes and the estimated increases over the next few years.
MPAC administers a uniform, province-wide property assessment system based on Current Value Assessment in accordance with the provisions of the Assessment Act. MPAC provides municipalities with a range of services, including the preparation of annual assessment rolls, which are used by municipalities to calculate property taxes.
In the fall of 2012, MPAC mailed a Property Assessment Notice to every property owner in Ontario. The 2012 Notices provided the classification and updated assessed value for property in Ontario based on a legislated valuation date of Jan. 1, 2012.
The last province-wide assessment update took place in 2008. In each non-assessment update year, we prepare approximately one million property assessment notices for owners of new properties or properties where a change has taken place.
To provide an additional level of property tax stability and predictability, market increases in assessed value between the Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 1, 2012 legislated valuation dates will be phased in over four years (2013-2016). The phased-in values for your property are indicated on your property assessment notice. The phase-in program does not apply to decreases in assessed value, which are applied immediately.