Bump.
Not sure were to post this but thought it was relevant to CP. The city is sitting with a massive tax short fall from all the vacant buildings downtown. The assessed values of these properties have dropped by the billions of dollars in the last handful of years and now the city is trying to shift the tax burden to suburban commercial owners who are generally small private groups. For some these PT bills are forcing them to close their door. Street front retail is by far the hardest hit with a number filing for bankruptcy or just walking away from their lease agreements. Anecdotally I've had a client who owns a small office building in the NW property tax bill jump from $33,000 to $70,000 over a two year period.
Why this matters to you is that there will be an inevitable shift from commercial property to residential property to make up the tax short fall. Calgary already has the biggest commercial vs residential tax gap of any city in the province at 1:4.14 and it isn't sustainable. I suspect that residential taxes will significantly increase in Calgary in the coming years as business push back on their assessments and demand a normalised commercial vs residential tax gap of 1:2.
Interesting reading here:
https://calgarysbusiness.ca/albertas...siness-owners/
Quote:
“Out of the top 20, Calgary continues to have the biggest gap of any city in the province, now estimated to be 4.14. That means owners of commercial property pay more than four times more property tax than residential property owners, based on the same assessed value of property. Edmonton’s gap is second worst at 2.82,” said the report.
“Too many city governments continue to depend on squeezing more and more property taxes from local businesses to pay for their ever-expanding operating budgets. This a risky and unfair strategy, as exposed by the recent situation in Calgary. In the midst of a struggling economy, assessed values for downtown commercial office space have plummeted, leaving small and medium-sized businesses outside the core expected to somehow pick up the tab. Talk about a tough pill to swallow,” said Richard Truscott, CFIB vice-president for Alberta and B.C., in a statement.
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