Former Mayor, John Sewel does not know how properties are taxed

[Glen]

http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/live/article/164262

Whether a tenant or a homeowner, you should be as upset as Premier Dalton McGuinty about your property tax assessment. A week before Christmas, the premier said that assessments for properties in Ontario were “unrealistic,†although he then implied he wasn’t going to do anything about the problem.

Of course they are unrealistic. Assessments for the next four years have been based on the value of properties in mid-2008, when the market was at its highest. Values since then have gone down maybe 15 per cent, maybe more.

But we’ll be taxed as though properties are worth more than they are. It’s no different than being taxed as though your income is $50,000 per year when it is really only $40,000.

 

[doady]

He is referring to how regressive the property tax is, and he is absolutely right.

 

[Glen]

He is referring to how regressive the property tax is, and he is absolutely right.

No he is not. If everyone is over assessed then everyone will be taxed with a mill rate that will be proportionately less. It is only when someone is assessed at a different level in relation to others that there is a problem.

From a municipal standpoint, changes in assessments are revenue neutral.

 

[Observer Walt]

^ that's correct. In addition, not to split hairs but the assessments which were sent out a couple of months ago are as of January 1, 2008, not "mid 2008".

A cut-off date has to be established somehow, and it was Jan. 1. To go back now and start redoing assessments on millions of properties, as of some other date, would be an immense task, and in the end, would not result in many people at all being taxed more fairly than they were before.

If anyone feels that their property was individually assessed at an unrealistic value (which certainly does happen, although less frequently now than before), a review mechanism is in place.

 

[Automation Gallery]

How do they asses a house if they havent entered it,Is it by location or size?
I buy a 100 year old house with knob and tube wiring 60amp service drains backing up with a shabby roof let alone all the cracked plaster walls through-out the house.
My next door neighbour which has a pretty identical house and property size bought his house from a yuppie lawyer that renovated the whole house with infloor radiant heat underpinned 8ft legal basement 200amp panel new wiring 3/4 inch maple hardwood floors throug-out,new thermo windows a couple of decks new roof with skylights plus solar panels for substitute heat etc etc etc. $300 is the diference in yearly taxes.I guess they must have noticed his high-end landscaping with the automatic sprinklers.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

There are also those who have won. If for example additions or renovations were completed recently (or off the books) it might not be reflected in the latest assessments.