BRIAN'S BLOG
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Property Taxes
February 7, 2014
It’s official, City of Toronto property taxes are increasing by 2.5% in 2014. Whether you live in a condo, loft or freehold house, they are going up!!
Have you ever wondered how property taxes work or how they’re calculated? The good folks at the Torontoist did – and they’ve put together a very informative article that some of you will find surprising (“People often assume that if the value of a particular property doubles, then its property taxes will double as well. This is not the case.”)
Here’s an interesting fact about the much-loathed Toronto Land Transfer Tax: “The land transfer tax now contributes almost $350 million to the City’s annual budget. We would need to increase property taxes by 14 per cent in order to generate that revenue.”
One of the reasons the Toronto land transfer tax is unfair is that it’s being paid by homeowners, but there are four kinds of property tax. As the article points out, everybody pays property tax, but tenants don’t see it as a separate line item.
The full article – a really good read!