YOU opened your property reassessment notice back in June and probably shrieked in horror.
Yes, the portioned assessed value of all properties across Winnipeg has increased by 14.6 per cent over the past two years, said Nelson Karpa, the city’s director of assessment and taxation.
Shudder.
But does that mean your school property taxes will go up that much?
Probably not.
OK, so that’s not all that reassuring, but let’s walk through it and figure out whether you’re going to get whomped on your school taxes next year after trustees set their budgets in March.
Bottom line, the Selinger government has been encouraging school boards to freeze their property-tax increases, dangling tax incentive grants in front of school board noses. If Education Minister Nancy Allan renews the grants — she’ll issue her annual funding decree in late January — then, if your property’s value increased close to the average, your bill shouldn’t change much.
Let’s take the Winnipeg School Division as an example.
The value of all houses has gone up 14.56 per cent between April 1, 2008 and April 1, 2010, calculates chief assessor Karpa.
If your property’s reassessed value is in that ballpark, you should be laughing.
If your property went up 25 per cent, then yes, you’ll pay more in taxes, because you’ll be paying a greater share of the overall tax burden. If it went up six per cent, you should be paying less in 2012.
Why won’t it stay exactly the same, if you’re at 14.56 per cent and the WSD trustees freeze taxes? Because. Depends. Listen up.
The value of apartment buildings has gone up substantially higher than houses, so apartment building owners will pay a greater share of the tax burden, thus reducing the hit on homeowners by a few bucks.
But the value of businesses, with the exception of those in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division, has gone up at a slower rate than houses’ value, so a few dollars and cents of the business share of the tax burden shift over to individual homeowners.
And finally, there will be new properties coming on the tax rolls for the first time, which should nudge down existing properties’ share — such as new homes in Waverley West, Sage Creek, Amber Trails.
Clear?
The jump in values is nowhere near as dramatic as in the last reassessment two years ago, which was based on a five-year change in market values, said Karpa. This increase is smaller: “Values are still going up, but not to the same trajectory,” he said.
Two years ago, there was a considerable shift from business to homes, but the change in their relative values has been far less significant a change this time.
“It’s not a very material shift,” Karpa said.
The values of owner-occupied condos have shown the most fluctuation, rising about twice as much in Seven Oaks than in Pembina Trails and St. Norbert.
And just to complicate, confuse and confound the picture even more, mill rates will go down next year if school boards freeze taxes. Lower mill rates mean a lower tax bill, right?
Um, no.
Municipalities and school boards calculate mill rates by dividing the assessment base into the amount of money they want to collect through property taxes.
If school boards freeze property taxes, then the only new money will be provincial grants, and the amount collected through taxes should remain constant.
A larger assessment base divided into a constant amount of property taxes collected produces a lower mill rate.
But since that lower mill rate gets multiplied by the higher property value to produce your tax bill, it should all even out.
Obvious, eh?
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/reassessment-jump-may-not-mean-tax-hike-136420428.html
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