OUCH IS RIGHT!!!
Have you ever noticed when a public official is talking about your money they always break it down to the smallest common denominator they can. Well your new assessment notice is no different if you look down the right hand side of the notice you will see that the average residential assesment will go up by 3.64% in Georgina for your 2009 tax bill calulation.
But what does that really tell you and what would you do if you took a fast glance. 3.64% thats not bad right --- what they are not putting into words is that the average assessed home in Georgina went up from about $220,000 to about $252,000 or a little better than 14.5% with a four year phase in.
But again what does that really tell you. It does not tell you how much your taxes will go up because the mill rate will not be set until after the time comes and goes that you could file an appeal. Since the only way you can ensure that you only pay your fair share of taxes is to ensure your property is assessed properly and that the value is relative to comparable properties not to what you think your home is worth.
How Much More taxes will I have to pay?
The Formula to calculate your taxes is Mill Rate x The Assesased Value = You Property Tax Bill which makes it very difficult in fact almost impossible to determine at this time because the mill rate is not set yet. But to give you and idea if the mill rate remained the same as last year (more on that later) a home assessed at $220,000 prior to the reassessment would pay roughly $3,069.00, after the reassessment the taxes on that home would be approximately $3,515.00 if the reassessment was applied all at once.
Because of the phase in provision the taxes on an avergage home, assuming the mill rate remains the same as it was in 2008, will increase by just under $112.00 a year every year so that during the phase in you would pay an additional $1,116.00 with out the mill rate going up.
What is Likely to happen to the Mill Rate?
While we do not know what will happen we can look to historical mill rates in Georgina to get an idea of what might happen.
Georgina, The school Boards and the Region requires X amount of dollars from Georgina residential taxpayers to pay the residential portion of the bills for the year. They calculate the mill rate by dividing that amount required by the total residential assessment in all of Georgina. This mill rate is then multiplied by your assessment to calculate your taxes.
The last time there was a reassessment was in 2005 for taxes in 2006, at that time the mill rate actually droped by about 8.89%. In order for the average home to pay the exact amount of taxes in 2009 based on the new full new assessment the mill rate would have to drop by about 12.7% if the assessment were not being phased in.
Because the new assesssment is being phased in I suspect that the mill rate this time will remain very close to what it is now perhaps even a little higher. I say this because the average increase in taxes for the last several years is slightly over 4% which is higher than the average assessment increase to be implemented this year.
And of course appeals and reassessments will affect all of the figures used here by the time the Mill Rate is actually set.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Most Gerogina Residents will be paying more property taxes this year, some a lot more.
Stay Tuned --- .
Earlier posts in the series
You and "YOUR" Property Tax Bill -- Your Assessment Notice Is In The Mail
You and "YOUR" Property Tax Bill -- Mill Rate Idiosyncrasy's
You and "YOUR" Property Tax Bill -- Is Current Value Assessment (CVA) A Better Way?
You and "YOUR" Property Tax Bill -- Who Takes The Biggest Bite?
It will be interesting to watch what happens to
"Your" Property Tax Bill
With province wide re-assessment taking place
for your 2009 property tax bill.
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