Delivering City services and determining your property tax bill

During budget deliberations and at different times of the year you may hear about changes to the tax rate. It’s important to remember this is only one input of the calculation that will determine your property tax bill. After all inputs are determined, your property tax bill is calculated and mailed out at the end of May each year.

There are three main inputs required, and they are:

1. The City Budget
2. Property assessments
3. The Provincial Budget 

Council may also approve changes to how property tax is distributed between residential and non-residential properties that can impact your tax bill. Today, the distribution of municipal taxes for residential properties is 52 percent vs 48 percent non-residential.

The first of three inputs determined is the City Budget, which is typically decided upon in November and finalized in the spring. This is the amount, after subtracting all other sources of revenue such as user fees and provincial grants, The City needs to deliver the services citizens value.

This change is referred to as the municipal tax rate change but may not match the change you see in your tax bill. This is because there are two more inputs to come.

The second input required is the assessed value of all Calgary properties. The total assessed value of Calgary properties is used to calculate the tax rate and your property value is used to calculate your tax bill. The City works throughout the year to determine the typical value change of all Calgary properties and sends out your assessment notice in January.  

Your property’s assessed value compared to the typical value change for your property class determines the share of property tax your responsible for.

Assessment notices are mailed out January.

The Provincial Budget is the last input required to calculate property tax rates and your tax bill, and it’s typically released in April. Approximately, 37% of your residential property tax dollars collected goes to The Province.