Why a higher assessment doesn't mean your taxes rise by the same amount

What matters for your tax is how your assessment changed compared with everyone else’s, not the change on its own.

How the tax is worked out

Each spring the municipality decides how much money it needs, then sets a tax rate so that the total assessed value raises that amount. Your tax is your assessed value times the rate (plus the provincial education rate and any requisitions).

An example

If every home in a city went up 10% and the budget stayed the same, the rate would fall by about the same amount and the bills would not change. If your home went up 15% while the typical home went up 5%, your share of the tax grows. If yours went up less than the typical home, your share shrinks, even though your value went up.

So compare

That is why the free check puts your change next to the change of similar homes nearby. A complaint is still about the value itself, not the tax: the question for the Board is whether your assessment reflects market value and is fair compared with similar properties.

Other guides

General information about Alberta property assessment, not legal advice.