Taxes

Assessed value of the cottage as it is used to calculate yearly property taxes:

• 2008: $361,000
  
• 2006: $229,000
• 2005: $194,000
• 2004: $194,000
• 2003: $187,000
• 2002: $116,000

The increase to $361,000 in 2008 will be phased in over a four year period as follows:

2011; $328,000
2010: $295,000
2009: $262,000

The large increase in the assessed value of our cottage in 2003, and the continuing increases, appear to have been caused partly by the move to current value assessment, but primarily by the rapidly rising value of waterfront properties which is occuring all across Ontario. See this recent article from the Apsley Voice, and other stories including an October 2005 story in the Globe, which report that in many municipalities in Ontario, assessments for waterfront properties rose by up to 100% between 1999 and 2003. Many stories report that owning a cottage anywhere in Ontario is becoming beyond the means of middle-income families.

Our taxes increased from $1,515.28 in 2002 to $2,283.45 in 2003, an increase of $768.17, which was a jump of more than 50% in one year.

The assessed value of $194,000 remained the same for 2004 and 2005 because the assessment was done for a two year period. The Province appears to be moving to annual assessments. The assessed value for one year is determined in the previous year, i.e. the 2006 assessed value is based on the assessed value as of January 1, 2005. Property Assessment Notices come out towards the end of October. The North Kawartha Council has recommended to the Ontario Government that the "freeze" put on in 2005 be extended to 2006 and 2007 and 2008 if necessary, and that during that time the Provincial government undertake a thorough review of current value assessment in order to implement a more equitable, stable and transparent assessment system. and that assessments be done every three or five years, rather than annually.

The good news is that according to our Property Assessment Notice for the 2006 tax year, the increase for our cottage assessment for 2006 was 18%, whereas the average increase in North Kawartha was 34%, and this includes both waterfront and non-waterfront properties.

Property Assessments are done by MPAC. It is possible to go to that site and click on "About My Property" and log in with the user name home0092655 and password Monk05 and view some details of the property and the most recent assessment. It is also supposed to be possible to search the assessments of nearby properties, presumably for the purpose of deciding whether our assessment appears to be fair.

Note: In March 2006 the Ombudsman released a report which said that MPAC had a "superiority complex" and "attitudinal and bureaucratic malaise", was incompetent, used "pernicious practices", engaged in "cutthroat manoeuvering around property owners" and concluded that "the system is badly broken." We may expect to see some changes to the system. In the meantime, the Provincial government has put a freeze on all assessments at their current levels until 2008. New property assessments will occur in the fall of 2008.

We pay taxes in one year based on the assessed value of the previous year, for example, the taxes we paid in 2006 were based on the assessed value for 2005 of $194,000.

Municipal tax rates are composed of three rates; Municipal (40%), County (35%) and Education (25%), percentages rounded off. Each has a different tax rate. In 2005 they were: Municipal .471666; County .416461; Education .296 = 1.184127%. Thus our taxes were $194,000 x 1.184127 = $2,297.20. While assessments are going up each year, tax rates are going down to keep the taxes more or less consistent. For example, previous Municipal tax rates were: 2005 - .471666; 2004 - .471666; 2003 - .478741; 2002 - .50965

I believe the cottage was bought in 1966 for $15.000.