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TO: |
Mayor and Members of Council |
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FROM: |
Barb
Cribbett, Treasurer |
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PREPARED BY: |
Paul
Wealleans, Director, Taxation |
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DATE OF MEETING: |
2005-Nov-07 |
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SUBJECT: |
Cancellation,
Reduction or Refund of Taxes under Sections 357 and 358 of the Municipal Act,
2001 |
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RECOMMENDATIONS:
THAT residential and non- residential taxes
totalling $328,673.73 be adjusted under Section 357 (in the amount of $299,145.44) and Section 358 (in the amount
of $29,528.29) of the Municipal Act,
2001 of which the Town’s portion is estimated to be $45,144.25.
AND THAT the associated interest be cancelled in proportion to the tax
adjustments;
AND THAT the Treasurer be directed to adjust
the Collector’s Roll.
PURPOSE:
The
purpose of this report is to authorize the Treasurer to adjust the Collector’s
Roll under Sections 357 and 358 of the Municipal Act, 2001.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Applications
have been received from property owners to adjust property taxes under Sections
357 and 358 of the Municipal Act, 2001 for the years specified on the
attached schedules.
BACKGROUND:
Sections 357 and 358 of the Municipal Act, 2001 allow for the reduction, cancellation or refund of taxes. Section 357 permits tax adjustments for the following reasons:
* if a property or portion of a property is eligible to be reclassified in a different class of property, and that class has a lower tax ratio for the taxation year than the class the property or portion of the property was in before the change, and if no supplementary assessment is made in respect of the change under subsection 34(2) of the Assessment Act;
* property that has become vacant land or excess land during the year;
* property that has become
exempt from taxation during the year;
* building that during the
year was razed by fire, demolition or otherwise, or
was
damaged by fire, demolition or otherwise so as to render it substantially
unusable for the purposes for which it was used immediately prior to the
damage;
* person who was unable to pay taxes because of sickness or extreme poverty;
* mobile unit that was removed from the municipality during the year;
* property overcharged
by reason of any gross or manifest error that is a clerical error, the
transposition of figures, a typographical error or similar type of error, but
not an error in judgment in
* in respect of a property which by reason of repairs or renovations could not be used for its normal use for a period of at least three months during the year.
Section 358 of Municipal Act, 2001 permits application for
tax adjustment by property owners who are overcharged by reason of any gross or
manifest error in the preparation of the assessment roll that was an error of
fact, which may include but is not limited to, clerical errors, the
transposition of figure or typographical errors, but not an error in judgment
in
Attached
as Schedule 1 is “Tax Adjustments under the Municipal Act” that, for each
application, identifies the year of
taxation, the assessment roll number of each property, the reason for the tax
appeal and the tax adjustment. The tax value includes the Town, Region and
School Board share of taxes. There are three main reasons for these applications:
(1) “Razed, Demolished” which relates to the demolition of a building on a
property that reduced the tax burden; (2) “Became Exempt” which are properties
that were assessed on the assessment roll as taxable but became exempt during
the year: these properties were transferred during the year from a taxable
owner to the Town and therefore became exempt from tax (generally lands as part
of subdivision agreements); and, (3) “Overcharged By Error” that are the result
of errors by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) on the
assessment roll which caused an overcharge of taxes.
Schedule
1 includes 58 applications for the adjustment of taxes. All applications have been reviewed and
approved by the staff of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC)
as required by the Municipal Act, 2001.
Schedule 1: Rateable
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Town
$ 45,114.25 Region $ 87,522.14 Education $196,037.34 Total $328,673.73 |
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FINANCIAL
CONSIDERATIONS:
The
amount of taxes adjusted for each of the Region and School Boards will be
reflected on the 2005 payment submissions to these bodies.
The Town of
ATTACHMENTS:
Schedule
1 “Tax Adjustments under the Municipal Act”
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Andy Taylor, Commissioner of Corporate
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Barb Cribbett, Treasurer
Q:\Finance and Administration\Finance\SHARED\2005 Finance_Admin Cttee
Reports\0534 Cancellation or Refund of Taxes
under S357.doc
