Coquitlam’s mayor deflects angry emails with ‘Property Tax 101’
Posted January 9, 2017 7:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
COQUITLAM (NEWS 1130) – If you are afraid your property taxes are going to leap up this year after a big jump in assessed home values across Metro Vancouver, you are not alone.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart has been getting quite a few angry emails from people dreading bigger tax bills in 2017. “I’ll say right off the bat that it’s not their fault that they don’t understand the relationship between assessments and taxes, since property tax is one of the most misunderstood tax systems,” Stewart posts on his Facebook page.
In “Property Tax 101” Stewart addresses the loss of homeowner grants for many people, pointing out it is the provincial government that sets the threshold and criteria. He then gets into assessments versus taxes.
“The second issue is much harder to understand. It may seem counterintuitive, but assessment increases don’t necessarily result in tax increases, “Stewart writes. “In fact, I suspect that despite massive increases in almost everybody’s assessments, the majority of Coquitlam households will see a decrease in their property taxes. No, really. Of course, others will see a large increase. We won’t get credit for the ones that decrease, but we’ll certainly be blamed for the others.”
Stewart then lays out in simple terms how municipalities set their yearly budgets and come up with the required property tax rates to cover them, pointing out that will be your tax rate if your home’s assessed value went up by the average in your neighbourhood.
If, as an example, homes all around you went up by 30 per cent and yours did, too, you won’t see be a big jump in your tax bill. However, if your home’s assessed value went up by more than the average that is when you will see a significant increase in your property tax.
But, as odd as this seems, if your home’s value goes up by 20 per cent, and that is less than average in your neighbourhood, you can expect your tax bill to significantly decrease for 2017. “In fact, I’m going to hazard a guess that the majority of Coquitlam properties will see taxes go down, though many of the remainder will see big increases,” says Stewart.
The 2017 BC property assessments sent out last week included 30 to 50 per cent increases for typical single family homeowners in Metro Vancouver. If you don’t agree with your assessment, you have until February 1st to submit an appeal to BC Assessment.