City Tax Bill in the Mail Today

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by pepper24

It's funny how so many Calgarians complain about property taxes, lack of snow removal, their alderman etc. considering how low voter turnout is.

Oh, I vote. If you don't vote, you can't complain. Problem is that, much like provincial elections, there is usually only one person to really vote on for Mayor and also in most wards.

Snow removal doesn't bug me, but I have been known to complain about my taxes going to all the new infrastructure required to support the insane suburb expansion.

[Suzles]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I see two improvements items that have popped up for curb and sidewalk repairs. If something was fixed it sure wasn't in front of my place. How far away can this be? The idiot neighbor across the street needed his rebuilt due to infills going in, is this it and do I have to pay for his curbs?

We had advance notice of our street having the curbs (or kerb) and sidewalks being re-done on out street. We all got together and sent a petition and the works are now not going ahead. It was an exorbitant amount of money each (thousands). I don't believe they can just go ahead and do it without your approval. You certainly shouldn't be charged for your neighbour's work.

[Envitro]

quick question for you guys: We just moved into our newly constructed home (Cardel Construction) and we got our 2009 property tax bill for 2009. Now, we were told that we would only have to pay from our posession date onwards by the lawyer dealing with our transaction.

However, it looks like we got the full tax bill in the amount "owing". Here's the kicker. The city's assessment was based on December 2008 values while the house was partially constructed, so it's about half or slightly over half of what I would imagine the home value to be now.

WTH do I do? Call the city and find out what's what? Or do I deal with Cardel for them to pay their portion up until April 17th?

[Azure]

Wait, you guys are saying that the city politicians are trying to screw you over?

REALLY?

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by Suzles

We had advance notice of our street having the curbs (or kerb) and sidewalks being re-done on out street. We all got together and sent a petition and the works are now not going ahead. It was an exorbitant amount of money each (thousands). I don't believe they can just go ahead and do it without your approval. You certainly shouldn't be charged for your neighbour's work.

Priceless. One of the worst things about government.

One person can try to push through a personal agenda hoping others will be to apathetic to oppose.

Same thing happened to my friend and his wife in Red Deer on a drive way repaving. Except they and the neighbours didnt fight it and then get a bill for about 8k each. Crazy.

[FFR]

Originally Posted by Envitro

quick question for you guys: We just moved into our newly constructed home (Cardel Construction) and we got our 2009 property tax bill for 2009. Now, we were told that we would only have to pay from our posession date onwards by the lawyer dealing with our transaction.

However, it looks like we got the full tax bill in the amount "owing". Here's the kicker. The city's assessment was based on December 2008 values while the house was partially constructed, so it's about half or slightly over half of what I would imagine the home value to be now.

WTH do I do? Call the city and find out what's what? Or do I deal with Cardel for them to pay their portion up until April 17th?

This happened to us as well. At least the part about getting an assessment on a partially constructed house. We paid the amount that was billed to us on the partially constructed house and then a few months later (around July) they sent us an updated bill with the difference between the new assessed value and what we had already paid.

As for Cardal paying a portion, you could first call 3-1-1 and ask them what the process is. While often they don't know the answers, I found them to be quite helpful when we went through the process.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

My taxes only went up $4 a month, which given the mill rate increase, means my house's assessed value took a bit of a dive relative to the average. Cool, I guess.

I still love that my parking stall is assessed at $10,000 though.

My parking stall is assessed at 20k. I'm not sure what to think of that.

[red sky]

Originally Posted by fotze

That is me. If they never build an overpass in the city again it will be too soon, west leg LRT could go the way of the dodo, not build a new road ever again and I'd be fine.

Also redsky...a 73% increase in your taxes? Wowsers.

It seems like the process of the assessment is purposely split over 4 different mailings to soften the blow of the final impact. Seems you get a few assessment notices per year with the old tax rates and old budgets then you get the actual tax bill, then 4 months later the monthly installment is adjusted up for some reason I can't remember. Its a good system because my outrage gets split up and I can;t remember what I used to pay, then compbined with the hold times at 3-1-1 I just eventually say "ahh fata it", I'll just pay it and complain on CP.

That is exactly how it works. I live in a townhouse in Killarney and paid $83 for most of last year, it was bumped to $93 for about 6 months I believe. When it was $93 my appraised house value was about $245K however units were selling for about $330K. The recent appraised value was at $308K which is resonable so it makes sense... I suppose.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by bomber317

My parking stall is assessed at 20k. I'm not sure what to think of that.

Is it an underground parking stall? My two spots were both assessed at 20k each. They are underground parking in the Beltline.

[Raekwon]

I Pay $2200 for a condo in High River now thats insane

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

I Pay $2200 for a condo in High River now thats insane

That's not insane, that's ridonkulous! What is your square footage?

[Wookie]

Ugh, I owe about $3,500 this year.

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Is it an underground parking stall? My two spots were both assessed at 20k each. They are underground parking in the Beltline.

Yeah, underground in the beltline.

Another funny thing, I pay my taxes through my mortgage company, but they can't add the parking stall tax bill to it. I have to manually pay it each year.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Envitro

quick question for you guys: We just moved into our newly constructed home (Cardel Construction) and we got our 2009 property tax bill for 2009. Now, we were told that we would only have to pay from our posession date onwards by the lawyer dealing with our transaction.

However, it looks like we got the full tax bill in the amount "owing". Here's the kicker. The city's assessment was based on December 2008 values while the house was partially constructed, so it's about half or slightly over half of what I would imagine the home value to be now.

WTH do I do? Call the city and find out what's what? Or do I deal with Cardel for them to pay their portion up until April 17th?

Leaving the Cardel issue aside for a second... the lower your assessed value, the lower your taxes. So, don't you want to keep the "too low" assessed value for as long as possible? Let the City figure it out when they do their 2009 assessment. Unless I'm misunderstanding the "kicker" part of your post.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by bomber317

Yeah, underground in the beltline.

Another funny thing, I pay my taxes through my mortgage company, but they can't add the parking stall tax bill to it. I have to manually pay it each year.

I'm on the TIPP plan but the two parking stalls came on separate bills yesterday. Just paid them online. You'd figure it would be easy to add them to a mortgage or TIPP plan, seeing as each stall has its own tax roll number.

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

I'm on the TIPP plan but the two parking stalls came on separate bills yesterday. Just paid them online. You'd figure it would be easy to add them to a mortgage or TIPP plan, seeing as each stall has its own tax roll number.

You could probably just apply to TIPP using the tax roll number for each stall, couldn't you? You'd theoretically have 3 TIPP's going on (condo, and one for each stall) but at least it could be automatic withdrawl that way. Each "property" is probably titled to you seperately... or at least that's why I'd assume that's why they are all seperate tax bills.

[Bigtime]

Yeah, but I'm lazy and the two stalls were $200 bucks combined so I just paid 'em online!

[Peanut]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Yeah, but I'm lazy and the two stalls were $200 bucks combined so I just paid 'em online!

So I guess it's not "just that easy" to add them to a TIPP plan!

[bomber317]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Yeah, but I'm lazy and the two stalls were $200 bucks combined so I just paid 'em online!

Same thing I've been doing the past 2 years. Just pay it online since it's only $100.

Did you have the stalls for the last tax year? I can't remember what it was, but I don't think it was anywhere close to $100 (0.5%) in this case.

I vaguely remember it was like $20-40 2 years ago.

[onetwo_threefour]

To those who recently bought new homes, here is how it is supposed to work...

If you buy between January and June, your builder will likely credit you for the part of the year that they own the property, based on last year's taxes (and partially complete value), and then you pay the full amount when the City issues the assessment, but you paid a little less for your house as a result. Then, some time later, the City will issue a Supplemental Assessment, for the difference between last year's partially complete value and the fully completed value. The Supplemental Assessment is generally isseued for only the part of the year that you own the property, (e.g. if you buy at the end of April the taxes will be pro-rated so you're paying taxes on the increase in value only for eight months - May to December)

If you buy between July and December, then the builder has usually paid the taxes in full for the year (based on partially complete value) and you won't pay any taxes until the city issues the Supplemental Assessment, at whcih point you should again be billed for only the part of the year that you owned the property.


These adjustments should be found on the Statement of Adjustments that your lawyer gives you at your rmeeting with him/her.

For used homes it gets a little trickier because of TIPPs, but the same concept fundamentally applies.