MINTO – With final county and education tax rates in place, the Town of Minto has provided updated information on 2021 budget tax impacts on typical properties.
Minto passed its 2021 budget in December while the County of Wellington passed its final budget in late January. The Province of Ontario recently released the final schedule of education tax rates.
“With all of the relevant factors in place, it is now time to determine the effects of these budgets and tax rate changes on typical properties,” states a Feb. 17 press release from the municipality.
“Overall, I guess the l important figure is that our local change is only .6 per cent and for an average property; that translates to a combined level of 1.6 per cent or $50,” treasurer Gordon Duff explained at the Feb. 16 council meeting.
“When is say average, I mean median, which means half the properties are below this value, half are above.”
A tax impact report pegged the median residential property value for 2021 at $245,000, up from $242,000 in 2020, an assessment change of 1.2%.
In 2021, taxes on the median residential property will be $3,204, up $50 or 1.6% from 2020, when taxes on the same property would have been $3,154.
The report notes the Minto portion of the median tax bill went up by $8, or .06%, from $1,297 to $1,305, while the county portion rose by $37 from $1,487 to $1,524. The education portion rose by $5, from $370 to $375.
“The percentage changes are based upon the combination of average assessment changes and the year-over-year change in tax rates for the particular assessment class,” Duff explained in the report.
“The tax rates are affected by not only the overall levy changes, which were 1.49% for Minto and 1.2% for the county, but also by the effect of changes in the portion of the tax burden paid by the various assessment classes.”
Commercial and industrial taxes in Minto will actually decrease in 2021.
A business with a median commercial assessment of $353,000 (down from $354,000 in 2020) will pay total taxes of $9,184, down $161 from 2020.
An industrial operation assessed at $555,000 ($549,000 in 2020) will pay $20,265 in 2020, down $1,757 from the previous year.
“Primarily that’s caused by a decrease in what’s called the business education tax,” Duff explained.
“So the province, and I think this part of a recognition that most sectors have had a rough year with COVID, they’ve decided to reduce the overall tax rate to those properties to .0088 (from .00924 (commercial) and .0125 (industrial)) and that’s had quite a significant impact.”
The report states it is apparent that the overall impact of the levy changes is “quite modest” for most assessment classes.
“The largest changes are caused by changes in assessment,” the report states.
