Property Assessment and Taxes Explained
How MPAC Assesses Properties in Ontario
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is responsible for assessing all property in Ontario for purposes of municipal and education taxation. To establish accurate and equitable valuations, MPAC relies on information supplied by property owners.
To establish your property’s assessed value, MPAC analyzes property sales in your community. This method is called Current Value Assessment.
It is used by most assessment jurisdictions in Canada and throughout the world. In addition to sales, MPAC looks at the key features of every property. As many as 200 factors are considered when assessing the value of a residential property. Five major factors usually account for 85% of the value:
- Location
- Lot dimensions
- Living area
- Age of the property, adjusted for any major renovations or additions
- Quality of construction.
- Other features that may affect value include: number of bathrooms, fireplaces, garages, pools, whether properties have water frontage, and so on.
MPAC analyzes the key features of your property with sales of comparable properties in your community to determine your assessment.
For condominium and townhouse properties MPAC has prepared an electronic spreadsheet identifying the data elements required for valuation purposes, such as: each residential unit’s municipal address, the level and unit to be assigned upon registration (residential, parking and locker units), purchasers’ names, price(s) and relevant dates, and structural details of individual units.
The last province wide assessment update took place three years ago and was based on Jan 1, 2005 valuation date. When City/Municipality sets property tax rates, your assessed value is used to determine your property taxes.
For example, a residential property in Mississauga with a CVA value of $200,000 and 2008 tax rate of 1.034762% will relate to $2,069.52 in annual property taxes. On the other hand, an assessment does not necessarily mean that your property taxes will increase. The 2008 residential tax bill in Mississauga includes three portions-City (28%), Region of Peel (46%) and Education levies (26%).
For questions about your Mississauga property taxes visit City’s tax rates site.
