City Council Approves 2018 Property Tax Rates

Today, City Council approved the 2018 property tax bylaws that set the 2018 property tax rate. The City of Calgary collects property taxes from all property owners within the municipality to fund municipal services and the provincial property tax requisition.

“As we come through our fragile economic recovery, your City Council is making economic growth and stability a priority. With our colleagues in City Administration, we're working hard to strike the right balance of ensuring high quality services for all Calgarians while maintaining some of the lowest taxes of any major city in Canada,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

Council approved the 2018 municipal property tax rate in accordance with budget adjustments, which reduced the planned 2018 property tax increase from 4.7 per cent to 0.9 per cent to help property owners still feeling the effects of the downturn.

“Administration has worked collectively to find solutions to reduce the municipal property tax rate and close the budget gap through a combination of cost savings and service reductions using a least harm approach to help reduce the impact on citizens”, said Chief Financial Officer Eric Sawyer.

In 2017, Council helped all property owners by providing two one-time rebates, shown as a single credit, on the 2017 property tax bill which effectively reduced the tax rate increase for 2017 to zero and deferred the 2017 increase to 2018. With the one-time municipal property tax rebate provided in 2017 expiring, property owners will feel an increase of 3.8 per cent on the median 2018 municipal residential property tax bill (2.9 per cent from the deferral of 2017 property tax and 0.9 per cent property tax increase in 2018).

The City of Calgary collects property taxes from all property owners within the municipality to fund municipal services as well as the provincial property tax requisition. This year, the provincial property tax requisition on The City is $788.3 million, an increase of $3.1 million from 2017.

The property tax bylaws are based on a combined municipal and provincial 2018 property tax rate increase of 0.2 per cent for residential properties and 1.0 per cent for non-residential properties.

This means that with the removal of 2017 rebates (valued at $51) and the 0.2 per cent combined tax rate increase (valued at $6), a typical household assessed at $480,000 will see a combined increase of $57 annually on their 2018 property tax bill.

Property tax bills will be mailed at the end of May and are due June 29.

Programs are available to help low income homeowners experiencing financial hardship. Through The City’s Property Tax Assistance Program, residential property owners of any age may be eligible for a credit/grant of the increase on their property tax account. Visit www.calgary.ca/FairEntry for more information or call 311. Seniors may also be eligible for provincial support. Visit www.seniors.gov.ab.ca or call 1-877-644-9992 for more information.

The City is committed to making life better every day, responding to the needs of Calgarians and demonstrating that we are a well-run City.

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